What are your thoughts about using Wikis in the Media Center? How can they be used most effectively? Are there drawbacks to Wikis?
A Wiki is “a collaborative tool
that allows students to contribute and modify one or more pages of course
related materials” (“Wikis,” 2015). To
begin with, let’s start with what makes a Wiki so unique: It can be edited by
multiple users. In my own opinion, this
can get quite tricky. The article “Seven
Things You Should Know About Wikis,” states it best in saying that a wiki is a
“Web page that can be viewed and modified by
anybody with a Web browser and access to the Internet. This means that any
visitor to the wiki can change its content if they desire. While the potential
for mischief exists, wikis can be surprisingly robust, open-ended,
collaborative group sites” (“Seven Things You Should Know About A Wiki,”
2005).
Much like the popular “Dropbox,” if
one person messes up, it can affect everyone else’s work. There lies the drawback of using a Wiki.
However, used correctly, there are
certainly appropriate uses for a Wiki.
How can it be best utilized in a Media Center? I think one way we can
use it to students’ advantages is to make a community Wiki for teachers to post
resources such as lesson plans and ideas. Essentially, a Wiki allows for
collaboration. Teachers are always
searching for lessons and eager to find new ideas. What better way to collaborate with one
another than to have a place to share our ideas? As busy as we are at school, we often don’t
get the time to stop and collaborate with other teachers, but the Wiki allows
us to do so in an online forum right from our computers. A Media Specialist would be an excellent
person to organize and manage this online forum for teachers.
While Wikis are touted as collaborative tools, many seem to be passive "storage cabinets." What elements need to be present to move them toward being active spaces for collaboration?
In an article published by Vanderbilt University, one of
the top uses of a Wiki is “mini research projects in which the wiki serves as
documentation of student work” and also “creating e-portfolios of student work“
(“Wikis,” 2015). This is something I
discussed with a senior English teacher at Ridgeland High School. Recently, senior teachers have switched the
“Senior Project” from a notebook layout to that of a Wiki. Students are required to keep all of their
logs, journals, and artifacts on a Wiki rather than inside a notebook. How is this considered collaborative rather
than a “storage cabinet?” What the
teacher likes is that she can “drop-in” to the Wiki anytime, adding documents
or looking over and leaving feedback (M. Crutcher, personal communication,
January 26, 2015). The Wiki serves as a
way for teachers and students to collaborate.
As a teacher, it makes the collaboration process easier. Rather than taking up each student’s work,
commenting, and handing back, the process can be expedited online which gives
students quicker feedback.
It’s the collaboration piece that makes Wiki both
tricky and unique! What do you think? Is the collaboration piece worth the potential flaws of a Wiki?
References:
Seven Things You Should Know
About A Wiki. (2005). Retrieved from
http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7004.pdf
Wikis. (2015). Retrieved from
http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/wikis/
I enjoyed your post Whitney! I am not a fan of Wikis but while reading your post I had a few ideas coming to mind on how Wikis could be useful. The "Senior Project" idea is a great one. I can see how allowing students to upload documents into an electronic type portfolio rather than a notebook could be useful... on the other hand, I start to think about other software that does similar things. I am very torn on the idea of a Wiki. One of the big turn-offs that Wiki is known for having is the open editing option... but in all reality - any collaboration tool is going to run the risk of someone deleting or editing a file. I am glad this is one of the discussion points for this class. I am hoping the more I read of others opinions and see some of the positives that Wiki has to offer that maybe my opinion will change for the better!!
ReplyDeleteI also like the idea of the Wiki for the senior project idea- maybe the concept that the wiki has to be used for collaborative projects is limiting. Also as a website/storage use, the wiki can become stale very quickly. At the same time, if someone doesn't have ownership of the wiki it can have incorrect or dated information as well as a sloppy appearance.
ReplyDeleteI think we will all be stealing the Senior project idea in some form or another. That was just a fabulous idea. It would appear that the capabilities of a Wiki for that purpose (the Senior project for example) would be a great resource to educators. Connecting with students in this manner is extremely useful. Instructional time is maximized and students are gaining yet another tangible experience in the world of technology. I believe, it is better to limit the number of contributors which might add or edit a Wiki resource but the collaborative effort is certainly an added bonus.
ReplyDeleteAs an educator, I believe that most teachers are revived and inspired when they are permitted opportunities to share, vent, discuss, collaborate and receive encouragement. During the school day this occurs in the teacher’s lounge at lunch for about 20 minutes or for about 10 minutes in the lesson plan meetings. Some educators have the ability to attend teacher conferences and workshops. These sessions are wonderful, you are refreshed and you are ready to begin again. When events like this are not possible, having a resource such as a Wiki, for the staff of a particular county for example, would be very useful.
Response to Blog 1, Student 2:
ReplyDeleteThe idea that having multiple users with the ability to go in and make changes (for better or for worse), is right on. Authority control is a big issue. Therefore, I believe that training and oversight are key to making wikis a useful tool for the Media Center. If a wiki is set up for use by teachers, to post information, lessons, and assignments, for instance, then the contributing teachers must be given ‘rules of the road’. They have to respect the comments of others, and not make changes to someone else’s posts without the knowledge and consent of that person -- even if that information is incorrect.
And that’s where things could get tricky. In my experience, teachers feel very proprietary about the way they present information. Egos are involved. If one teacher (say, in a PLC) thinks that s/he has a better grasp of a subject than a colleague, or feels that s/he is an expert on a certain topic, then the temptation to go in an edit something that s/he feels is incorrect or clumsily handled, might be too strong to resist. Therefore, in order to avoid in-fighting, everyone would have to agree ahead of time, on who should head up the wiki project.
So what is the role of the Media Specialist in a case like this? Is s/he merely the one who trains, sets up, and administers? Or does she get involved in content issues? I think the answer is both. S/he could help the teachers see the value of having a wiki, s/he could help train the users, help set it up if necessary, and s/he could provide assistance in finding content to be posted in the wiki.
So in effect, the Media Specialist would be doing the same thing that s/he does every day: helping to provide resources and information to support instruction and enrich curriculum. Hopefully, s/he could avoid being drawn in to disagreements between colleagues, remaining totally neutral.
Response to Team 3 (Courtney West Team4)
ReplyDeleteI do think the collaboration that is received from a wiki is worth the flaws that can occur. I think having wikis for teachers to be able to post ideas is a great way to share ideas. Many times the only time teachers get to meet is during grade group meeting at the end of the day. By that time most teachers are tired and ready to go home. It’s hard to remember a great site or activity to do. A wiki would allow teachers the opportunity to share resources with other teachers as they find them. As we know, the new teacher evaluation requires us to show how we collaborate with others. The media specialist could help find activities and make them more accessible and easy to find. As for students using wikis, that can get tricky. The teacher or librarian would have to decide who can have access and what they are allowed to edit. This can become restrictive and decrease opportunities for expanded collaboration among many students and classes. As technology becomes more predominant in schools, we as teachers are going to have to find ways to incorporate technology and make it accessible and easy for all students.