I am truly just learning about wikis in this class. I have had exposure to blogs and podcast but wikis are totally new to me. It seems that they can be simple or complex but useful in either case. I can see this being one of those things in the future that evolves into everyday use and we will look back and say, “Remember life before wikis?”
In the article “Seven Things you Should Know about Wikis” (which I felt was well written for the layman such as myself), it stressed how wikis are used in higher education more for collaboration. I really think this is what my school system needs. They stress collaboration to the point that you want to scream. Of course, I understand why but right here is their answer. We are a county with a lot of computers and they could easily make it a requirement to do this county wide and really connect the schools. It is a big step. I could see being afraid to be the first in high schools to do this. I am not in special education but it looks like it might really be a wonderful answer for the communication that goes on between the general education teacher, the special education teacher and the case manager. Again that would take some planning and implementing, neither of which it appears those folks have time to do.
Another thought while reading this was that it just would not work at a school such as the one I teach at. There are too many students who would deliberately screw up someone else’s work. I am doing a class project and I have heard more than one kid say that they are not going to bring their part of the project in on purpose. This also brings to mind another point made in that article which is that there is a responsibility to monitor the wiki. Again in my high school setting, I could see some deliberate attempts to use it improperly.
Last, I am a reader of a local radio stations news page. I noticed a couple of months ago when their format changed. I noticed that people were able to comment but after having this class I realize that it is a form of wiki. People are able to make comments and respond to others and I am sure it is monitored. It is really exciting to recognize the changes in the world around us. As I get older I promise myself not to stick my head in the sand and just let the world go by. Looks like technology is the thing to focus on in the future.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I agree that monitoring a wiki is probably the key in any school setting involving children regardless of their age. I also think that using a wiki to work through issues or come up with strategies as a large group in a county setting would be great. We had tried to do something like that with our former coordinator, but unfortunately that has fallen by the wayside. It would be great to have the "fixes" to simple equipment problems right there at your finger tips.
Post a Comment