What an interesting week as we explore and begin to use Wikis for education and organizations. As I continue my journey through the 'read/write' Web I had a reality check about Wikipedia. Often disparaged and dismissed as a source of research because 'anyone can edit' the content - Wikipedia does have a legion of followers who fact check articles to get the stories right. I examined three subject areas where I have extensive knowledge and discovered that they were all correct. Just performing this exercise seriously rehabilitated my esteem of Wikipedia. Sure, it should not be used a single, definitive source - but from now on I challenge anyone to test an area of their expertise on Wikipedia. If you find something that is incorrect or want to add to the body of knowledge - just do so. This is the era of DIY and fellow contributors on Wikipedia will review your work and you can even debate in the Discussion section.
Wikis are more than a big clearinghouse for information, they can help bring businesses and organizations together. I created a Wiki site on WetPaint.Com for the UW-Hoofer's Sailing Club Instructors and Club Administrators and it can be found here. I selected one of many themes available from WetPaint resulting in a dashboard user interface with tabs across the top. I added discussion categories, uploaded pictures and added an RSS feed for sailing news. I edited the home page of the site, added a welcome message and directions for accessing the discussion, photos and news tabs. Later, I went back and added hyperlinks so that anyone could click directly into those sections of the Wiki Site.
My goal for the site was suggested by the Chaper 4 reading from Will Richardson's 'Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts'. I am attempting to create an online community where members can contribute and drive the discussions and collaborations. I seeded a few categories but my hope is that this site could be a good prototype - a shakedown cruise - to see if WetPaint can be the Wiki for the Sailing Club. I do like the controls one has over who can see the site and contribute to it. The initial review by the Head of Instruction is favorable and I lobbied for rolling it out to the target community in the coming months.
Have you heard of 'Microblogging'? Well, I am blogging right now but millions of people are blogging daily with Twitter. I now have a Twitter account and anyone can tweet me at http://twitter.com/MrBrianAdams
I am trying to find value in Twitter and have created several lists that I can follow. I have a list for my MEIT Cohorts so that I can follow their microblogging. Honestly, I thought that this would be a waste of my time. However, already I have seen posts from others that contain brief reflections and very interesting links. I will give Twitter time and use it every day for a few weeks and see if any light bulbs go off in my head about how to employ it for school and professional use.
Finally, I added an RSS Feed to this blog site. If you want to see the latest 5 Photo Blogs from my Posterous site just look for them in the upper right hand corner. On that last note, this is the 'read/write' Web and I always look forward to comments about my posts.
Have you heard of 'Microblogging'? Well, I am blogging right now but millions of people are blogging daily with Twitter. I now have a Twitter account and anyone can tweet me at http://twitter.com/MrBrianAdams
Finally, I added an RSS Feed to this blog site. If you want to see the latest 5 Photo Blogs from my Posterous site just look for them in the upper right hand corner. On that last note, this is the 'read/write' Web and I always look forward to comments about my posts.
I too am not sure about twitter. I really like being unplugged. I don't know that I will tweet much, but if I know that what I will tweet is of help to someone, i might. I like your Hoofers wiki. Very cool. Keep going - it will be a great resource. Can you email the link to members?
ReplyDeleteI'm still on the fence about Twitter, I just have to keep trying it. I did create a Twitter List so that I just see people in our program.
ReplyDeleteTonight I present the Wiki to the Sailing Instructors. I am sending instructions so that people can sign-up. I am excited about showing it to the group but ultimately it is up to them to take ownership. Should be interesting to see if the 18-25 year olds are still digital immigrants :)