What is a wiki? I
remember, not very long ago at all, I had no idea what a wiki was-and I thought
of myself as pretty tech savvy! As a
person out in the “other” working world, not education, I had never been
exposed to a wiki and what they could do.
However, I did know what Wikipedia was, and that you could not use it as
a source for a paper!! I seriously did
not put the two together for a long while and was embarrassed when I finally
figured it out. The light bulb totally
went off above my head…”students you can’t use Wikipedia because the
information may not be correct and anyone can go in and change it!” How many times had I said that or heard that
and not realized truly what I was saying.
Wiki’s can be described in many ways but the one that works for me is: the
simplest collaborative content manager that could possibly work. Wiki’s are designed to allow people to create
and edit web pages without having to know how to write computer code. School library media specialists report that
they are using wikis to:
-Learn about wikis and web design
-Teach about wikis and web design
-Provide reference materials
-Teach students about wikis
-Teach about "authority" in web and reference
materials
-Teach about copyright and/or Creative Commons licensing
-Compare and contrast Wikipedia with other information
sources
-Help students understand how reference materials are
created
I do believe that wikis have many uses, but in my personal
opinion I am not a fan. I do not favor
the idea that anyone can go in and change/add content. I would prefer to have a webpage and either a
blog or a drop box that students can submit work and ideas. Also, in the past, I have not had extremely
good experiences with wikis-depending on which wiki platform is used, of
course. I find them to be full of steps,
complicated, and not always in working order.
Another downside, according to Educase,is that it represents the
collective perspective of the group that uses it and over time the values,
perspectives, and opinions of its users cn become embedded in the wiki. Finally, if you use a wiki as your school
media center’s website, you need to constantly monitor for inappropriate
information, language, spam, and posts.
In conclusion, I find wikis to be useful in a school library media
center, but they also have many downsides.
Pressley, L. (2010). Wikis for libraries. New York:
Neal-Schuman.
7 things you shold know about wikis. (2005, July). Retrieved
October 2, 2012, from Educause website: http://www.educause.edu/eli
Cari,
ReplyDeleteThanks for including a list of how other media specialists are using wikis. I definitely think that we should get together and spend some time brainstorming to determine if wikis are the best use of technology in our media center.
I agree with your comment about the downside of wikis; often too many authors can dilute an idea instead of advancing it. It sounds like using the weebly for our Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl Team was the right choice - we can choose who is allowed to edit each page, and as far as ease of use, the weebly was very quick to create, it looks organized and professional, and it is easy for our team to add their Q & A’s.
Thanks for your post, I found it to be really informational. I also had a "light bulb" moment when I realized that Wikipedia was just one giant conglomeration of wikis on specific topics.
ReplyDeleteAlthough wikis can sometimes be difficult to use (once I tried to embed a video from Galileo for over an hour and it never worked- I wanted to cry!) I feel that, as a work product, they can be really useful for groups of students. I actually think that it's a good thing that the wiki contributors' values, perspectives, and opinions can become a part of the wiki's content because it shows their reasoning and learning process. This is useful as long as it's understood that the wiki does not necessary contain completely factual information but is a product of what the students know or believe. I guess it just depends on the learning goals of the assignment as to whether presenting opinion would be appropriate or not.
Thank you for the interesting perspective!
I agree that a Wiki should not be the entire Media Center web page. However, the Media Center at my school does use it as a teaching element. A Wiki page can be a good tool to collaberate and improve group dynamics. I also agree that a Wiki can be very flustrating and not represent the entire group. I found this true last semester. I chose to work off line and make major post to the Wiki at one time. The other group members chose to edit and update every item on the Wiki. It appeared that I did not do as much work. Teachers will need to have definate do's and dont's for student use.
ReplyDeleteYour post is an honest assessment of the Wiki.