Friday, July 31, 2009

Wikis

Prior to this course I had heard of a Wiki but was unsure about what they were used for. After exporting Wikis and doing some research I am starting to understand them much better and how I could use them in the classroom.

Before I started exploring Wikis I had negative attitudes towards them. This is because I did not have much experience with them and was unsure about what there purpose was. However after my research I have changed my negative attitudes into positive ones and am now excited to start adding things to my Wiki!

Wikis can be used by classes as a form of communication for homework or assessment tasks. It is a safe and user friendly way for students to access work they may have missed and communication to occur with their peers. In the classroom I think they would be great for group work as everyone can share their ideas, voice their opinions and they will be doing this in a safe environment. They are great ways to organise group work, have discussions and compile lists to help them complete at task.

Wikis are great for linking groups of people together who share the same interest (YouTube, 2007). They are also great because instead of sending emails to your inbox Wiki is a tool which can be used as a device for the whole group to access the information (
Matias
, 2003).

Before my research I didn’t know that Wikis could only be edited by people who were connected to that site (Matias
, 2003). I found out that the webpage can be set to private and only the people in the group can access and contribute ideas to the page.

When I was setting up my Wiki page with Wetpaint I was unsure if I had set it up properly as all of these boxes popped up when I logged on. After watching the Wikis in plane English clip of YouTube (2007) I followed their instructions and edited my page to be up and running successfully. My Wiki is http://e-learning-s0129155.wetpaint.com/.

For anyone starting out their WIKI using Wetpaint this is a great You Tube clip to get you started: Wetpaint Wikis in Plain English



-Natalie


Reference list


Matias, N. (2003) What is a Wiki. Retrieved, July 29, 2009, from http://www.sitepoint.com/article/what-is-a-wiki/

YouTube. (2007). Wetpaint Wikis in Plain English. Retrieved, July 29, 2009, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7BAU2XX5Ws

YouTube. (2007). Wikis in Plain English. Retrieved, July 29, 2009, from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY

2 comments:

  1. Nice work Natalie! I will definately be following your suggestion and watching that You Tube clip on setting up my own Wiki. Plus looking at the other suggested blogs.
    Rissa.

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  2. The company that created the Wiki's in Plain English also creates many other videos for different technologies. I have watched so many of them now and have learnt a lot.

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