Week #5 - Wikis

PURPOSE FOR WIKI
Creating my own wiki is unchartered waters for me so I was a little uncertain of what purpose I wanted to achieve. I brainstormed ideas and jotted them down in list format. The very last idea that came to me was the one I selected for my wiki, and one I thought would be helpful to others. The purpose of my wiki is to allow others to list educational and entertaining game sites for teachers and librarians to use with students. My thinking on this is that students of all ages love to play games on the computer. Why not have a site of educational games that are also stimulating so that teachers and librarians can use them for enrichment or for tutorials? I realize that the success of using these games depends on the technology situation at each school district - some districts have adequate supply of computers whereas other districts do not. But I hope that this site will become a quick, handy reference for educators to find the games that support their subject content and grade levels; and that will keep students entertained and engaged. In other words: "Edutainment".

ADVANTAGES OF WIKIS
*One advantage of using wikis is for easy communication. As seen on the "Wikis in Plain English" video, it is much easier to communicate with a group of people via wiki as compared to email.
*Another advantage is the simple steps involed in working a wiki. Just 1,2,3 = edit, write, save. Click "edit", write your information, and then click "save".

*A third advantage of wikis is that they are public for others in the cyber world to enjoy and share input.

*A fourth advantage is that users can access the wiki from any location in the world as long as they have the Internet.

*A fifth advantage is that users can experience a sense of pride in authoring the information they publish on the wiki.

DISADVANTAGES OF WIKIS
*I think the biggest - and most nerve racking- disadvantage of using wikis is the fact that one can inadvertly edit or even DELETE another's input. That is a scary thought. I sometimes use the touch pad on my laptop and it is very sensitive. I have to be very careful to scroll around information on the wiki rather than across it = or I might accidently delete some important information.

*Another disadvantage is that the public access that wikis allow can open the door to inappropriate language or content. As a result, the wiki requires authorization.

*A third disadvantage is the time required to stucture the content and collaborate with others in an organized manner. This takes some careful planning.

*A fourth disadvantage is that wikis can present biased information. Although this can be avoided, sometimes the group of people sharing information may have the same thoughts and convictions about issues published on the wiki.

ARE WIKIS ENGAGING?
Thinking back to the article about digital natives, I think the wiki is a tool that needs to be used in the classroom because it is a current technology. However, as is true with any teaching tool or method, how one uses the wiki will determine if it will engage the learner. The wiki could be boring and hum drum if not used to its potential. It could also be a very stimulating and productive tool in the hands of someone who is immaginative and creative. You get out of it what you put into it. Yes, I do think wikis have the potential to engage the learner.

OTHER WEB 2.0 TOOLS TO EXPLORE
The sky seems to be the limit on Web 2.0 tools. I would love to explore animation more. I have created a book trailer but I need more practice at it. Designing book trailers in Animoto would be beneficial in my future library.

I would also like to experience with vlogging. I am a little apprenhensive about putting my face and voice on a video, but I think it would be fun.

Along with that I would like to learn video editing. I have seen a "how to" video but I need to do more of a hands-on training.

I am intrigued with virtual learning worlds using avatars, but I have no experience with this at all. I have heard that users get addicted easily but I would just like to start small. A good start for me would be creating an avatar for my blog. I have not done so because I did not like the mees site asking for my birthdate year. I just don't like to give out information that I feel is unnecessary.

I have just recently started using RSS. I am still new to this but I'm learning. There are so many other interesting Web 2.0 tools I would like to master, I just have to take a few at a time.