Week 3 - Wiki

Yeah - my wiki is up and running.

So what is a wiki – my own short answer is that it is a on-line tool for multiple author participation and can be edited/changed/deleted by anyone.

In this course I have already been involved in a number of wikis – a wiki debate on mobile phones in the classroom (week 2 blog); practice quiz; and the creation of my own wiki (http://gracegannonict.wikispaces.com/).

To put my wiki to the test my first post asked for some help (collaboration) with filling out SWOT’s for the use of blogs, wikis, and website in the classroom so that I could use them for my blog posts. In theory this would have been a great collaboration and production method. But because I have a limit of 5 members I could only ‘invite’ a limited number of people – and no one responded – fail! Not to worry, real world collaboration in the classroom didn't fail me and our discussion at this week’s class helped me fill in some of the following SWOT table. 

STRENGTHS Student collaboration – each student contributing Constantly being updated Available anytime/anywhere Teacher can ensure all students are on the right track / otherwise direct them back to the main ideas Easy to use

WEAKNESSES Very little authorship control Students work can be deleted/changed etc Can be hard to see any real outcomes other than personal updates/responses (lack of need for factual information and research) Requires very clear instructions as to what is appropriate Comments could be offensive/cause intimidation Not everyone is able to, or prefers using on-line mediums and having other read their opinions Information posted can be incorrect, misleading etc. Relies on having a computer and internet which not all students have access too = disadvantaged students No spell check

OPPORTUNITIES Great tool to learn with – technology, writing, etc. Anytime/anywhere tool Individual creativity Collaboration Can choose who makes changes etc

THREATS Students work can be deleted/changed etc Information posted can be incorrect, misleading etc. Runs the risk of being used solely as a tool for individual entertainment rather than a learning tool Security issues with having children’s profiles on the web

Personally I don’t know how much emphasis I will put onto using wiki as an on-line learning tool into my pedagogy. Not really sold on the idea of student’s work, or my own work, being edited and even deleted without consultation.