#18 Create a wiki or add an entry to a Vermont’s 23 Things sandbox wiki
I visited all 3 of the Vermont's 23 Things sandbox wikis and added my blog to the "favorite blogs" on all of them, plus added a few other things here and there. I didn't create a wiki yet, but have edited a freshly-minted wiki only a week weeks back, following a VSLA meeting where the topic was Web 2.0. Our wiki of resources from the meeting is at PBwiki: vslacentral. The wiki was created during the meeting and many resources we discussed at the meeting are on there, but not all.
I plan to explore a few more of the wiki sites to decide which seems the most user-friendly to start a wiki on a classroom project, collaborating with teachers. Or perhaps one for the Allied Arts team (aka "specials teachers") for an interdisciplinary project we have in the works.
Week 9, Thing 18: Wikis - part 2
Oh, heck. I couldn't leave well enough alone. I decided to try out Wikispaces and the next thing I knew I had started a wiki for our Allied Arts project and pasted in some links from an e-mail from a colleague. And added some details.
Showing posts with label wikis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wikis. Show all posts
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Week 9, Thing 17: Wikis
#17 Learn about wikis and discover some innovative ways that libraries are using them
Having just spent hours cruising through all kinds of wikis, one thing I noticed is that I would not have known that many of these were wikis if it had not been pointed out to me. There is such a wide variety of formats and the look of many of these wikis is very much "traditional web page." So I guess that means I'll have to really watch more closely to see if I am actually on a wiki site. Best thing about wikis: ease of collaboration, can access many people's points of view; worst thing: inability to authenticate sources. Whether I would rely on information obtained on a wiki would depend on the topic. Would I try a recipe from Recipes Wiki? Sure. Would I trust the article on "How to Recover from a Corrupted Registry That Prevents Windows XP from Starting" from wikiHow? Well... I think I'll stick with the article I found on that same topic on the Microsoft tech support website. Especially since the first instruction from wikiHow has me taking the cover off not one but two computers and hooking them together (like a jumpstart for the non-functioning one) and Microsoft has me start out by inserting the Windows CD. The fact that step one of the Microsoft fix actually worked (that is, it got my computer to start, even if the repair is not yet complete), days before I found wikiHow, has no bearing on this comparison!
But would I use a wiki in my library? Yes, I would. I might try a book review wiki with students. I'll definitely try some project-based wikis with classroom teachers so we can collaborate by adding resources for students to a page they can access from school or home, and we can do it on our own time, not in those few minutes when our planning times overlap or we all happen to be working late.
Having just spent hours cruising through all kinds of wikis, one thing I noticed is that I would not have known that many of these were wikis if it had not been pointed out to me. There is such a wide variety of formats and the look of many of these wikis is very much "traditional web page." So I guess that means I'll have to really watch more closely to see if I am actually on a wiki site. Best thing about wikis: ease of collaboration, can access many people's points of view; worst thing: inability to authenticate sources. Whether I would rely on information obtained on a wiki would depend on the topic. Would I try a recipe from Recipes Wiki? Sure. Would I trust the article on "How to Recover from a Corrupted Registry That Prevents Windows XP from Starting" from wikiHow? Well... I think I'll stick with the article I found on that same topic on the Microsoft tech support website. Especially since the first instruction from wikiHow has me taking the cover off not one but two computers and hooking them together (like a jumpstart for the non-functioning one) and Microsoft has me start out by inserting the Windows CD. The fact that step one of the Microsoft fix actually worked (that is, it got my computer to start, even if the repair is not yet complete), days before I found wikiHow, has no bearing on this comparison!
But would I use a wiki in my library? Yes, I would. I might try a book review wiki with students. I'll definitely try some project-based wikis with classroom teachers so we can collaborate by adding resources for students to a page they can access from school or home, and we can do it on our own time, not in those few minutes when our planning times overlap or we all happen to be working late.
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