Wikitacular!

Wiki Reflection: Bryant

This week has been such an enlightening experience for me! I have learned so much throughout the process of creating a wiki with my group. While I was initially nervous about using some of the features and about not being technologically savvy enough to keep up with the other members of my group, I quickly learned that wikis are very user-friendly and can be picked up on easily if you are simply willing to take the time to play around with the features. There were a few instances where I found that I mistakenly typed things in error that I needed to change, and I even accidentally deleted one of our icons that led to our “At a Glance” ratings page. However, I found that I was easily able to revert the wiki back to its previous state and my errors were able to be fixed even though I was not an expert at using this type of technology.

I found that collaborating with my group during this project was a very positive experience. Everyone was willing to jump in and do her part. We all were understanding of the fact that we were mostly new to this, and therefore we did not oppose to any changes others made to pages we had created. This project was not “Amanda’s” project--it was a collaborative effort of the Wikitacular Crew, and I felt that we all took a joint pride in the product we created together. One thing I quickly learned was that I had to be willing to step out and test the features that were available through the wiki, even though I was unsure of what some of them were for when I initially started with them. For example, my group quickly realized that we became overwhelmed with all of the ideas being tossed out in different areas. Some of us were posting in the application area on the Walden page, while some of us were posting in the discussion forum on the wiki page. Therefore, we were having to bounce back and forth to look at everyone’s comments, which was a bit of a struggle. Someone suggested that it would be nice if we were able to have a live chat on our page to be able to discuss changes we might want to make in “real-time.” While none of us knew if this function existed or not, I decided to look around at the widgets available and found one that could be embedded on a page to allow for us to chat as a group. While I am unsure of whether this will work the way we want it since the project is almost over, it is good to know that this function is there. While I believe this feature would have been much more beneficial if I had discovered it earlier in the week, I believe that this project was about learning the features of the wiki and how we can implement them in our future use. Thus, I learned that there are numerous features available on a wiki that are quite simple to use if only I make sure that I educate myself about how to use them; I must be dedicated to doing this so that I can make full use of all the incredible functions available through technology of wikis so that I can teach my students how to use them.

As I mentioned, our wiki page was a true collaborative effort; I believe that if I apply this knowledge to the use of wikis in my classroom, the tool could generate some truly amazing work. Richardson stated, “As we continue to move toward a world where everyone has access to ideas and where collaboration is the expectation…, wikis can go a long way to teaching our students some very useful skills for their future” (2009, p. 59). After all, as Dede mentioned (Laureate Education, Inc., 2008), expert decision making and complex communication are critical skills our students will need in the 21st century workplace. As I worked with my Wikitacular Crew this week, I had to make decisions about changes to the page that would impact my group’s product and I had to communicate with colleagues whom I have never met face-to-face to discuss how we would work together to achieve our common goal of creating a wiki page that would serve all the purposes we had for it. I plan to use those experiences to inform my implementation of this tool in my classroom so that I can teach my students the important skills they will need once they enter their careers.

I am thrilled about the possibilities associated with using wikis as an instructional tool in my classroom. I have already set up my own wiki and am looking forward to using it as a collaborative site where my students can share writing tips, sign up for book projects, post their notes from what we are learning in class, etc. The potential is endless! There will definitely need to be some careful parameters in place before I undertake this project with my students. I believe that it will be important to place my students in small groups and make them each responsible for a particular page on the wiki; this will help to ensure that everyone is clear on his/her contributions that need to be made to the page rather than simply turning them loose and telling them to update the site as a whole. Additionally, I plan to show them other class wikis, as well as putting them on our own wiki to play with the features and envision what widgets can be used to accomplish their goals with me overseeing what they do before I expect them to truly “take the reins” on the project. While I agree that projects like wikis do come with the risks of being vulnerable to certain students who may want to make changes to the site with bad intent, the beauty of the wiki is that all changes can be viewed in the history log. This will largely serve to dissuade any students who may try to intentionally mess up the wiki because they know the changes they make can be tied back to them. Furthermore, it is comforting to know that even when my students make changes on accident (or even when I do this while I am still learning to use the tool), the wiki can always be restored as necessary. As with any tool from the Read/Write Web being used in the classroom, I know that it will be important for me to carefully monitor my students and make sure they are using the tool appropriately. However, if I make sure that I do this, I firmly believe that wikis will be a tool that will transform learning in my classroom in a powerful way!

References:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2008). The Changing Work Environment: Part 2 [Motion picture]. Baltimore: Author.

Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.