WEEK 7 - WIKIS

SANDBOX WIKI
I added two entries to the Learning 2.0 SandBox wiki. They were my favourite books, of course Steig Larson’s trilogy and my favourite TV shows, which included: Lost, The Office, Seinfeld, The Amazing Race, Survivor, just to name a few. I haven’t had too much time to watch these lately as I’ve been busy blogging!

DISCOVERING WIKIS
I've discovered that 'Wiki' is the Hawaiian word meaning 'quick'. The biggest wiki we all know about is of course Wikipedia, and althought it has so much information stored in one spot that it boggles the mind (who put it all there?), students tend to go there for lots of their research. It can be the 'starting' point for research but as it is a 'wiki' it is not always correct in it's information because anyone can add their own information to Wikipedia.

Wow... check out http://pgscreading.pbworks.com/ this site impressed me so much as to how to use wikis effectively and also how teachers and students are becoming so innovative at using the Web 2.0 technologies to enhance their school work. Combining Animoto and Powerpoint storyboard children as young as Grade 4 can produce fantastic video clips on their wikis. Using Booktrailers students are making their own book trailers (like movie trailers) to review books... but wait there’s more... click on the ‘sidebar’ and learn about 60 second recap, Toon Doos, and much, much more.

I had a look at the some other wikis and the ways different organisations use them. I noticed a local historical group put their help sheets for databases on their site and some public libraries use their wikis for communicating with the wider community. A wiki page can have a search field, navigation tabs and toolboxes. The good thing about wikis is that they are web based and they are free. With a wiki anyone who has access to that wiki can make changes which make them flexible, however, this does open them up to SPAM or vandalism as there is not much control over what is entered on them and they would require constant supervising. They can tend to be a little disorganized, depending on who has set them up and who is using them.

The wiki that has been set up at my workplace within the Library of a Catholic Secondary College, with enrolments of 1900+ and 250 staff and over 2 sites works very well. It was established approximately 12 months ago and is maintained by 2 or 3 senior staff, although all Library staff can have access to it and could change it if required to. It is used mainly as a Procedure Manual within the school intranet. It not only holds the procedures for every task done within the Library but has photos where needed (e.g. to know how to hook up a data projector correctly you can look up the procedure and photos show you which cords go into which sockets etc.). The wiki also provides great communication tool for staff, especially to part-time or relieving staff as the day to day running of events are explained very clearly, Other procedures range from:
opening and closing procedures for the library
where to place labels on books
how to fix/maintain the photocopier
front desk duty
displays
brochures
daily administration
policies

I find our wiki a very useful tool in our workplace and the more I find out about the innovative ways people are using wikis I can see that the sky is the limit.