Wikis are a very easy way for us to collaborate. While I was pretty familiar with Wikipedia before taking this course and reading this book, I had no idea how extensive and applicable the features of a wiki site could be. As Richardson states, "Wikipedia is the poster child for the collaborative constructions of knowledge and truth that the new, interactice Web facilitates." Amen brother.
I had always been skeptical of info accuracy and validity on sites like Wikipedia. After reading this chapter I STILL AM, but have a lot more confidence in the evolution of the information in both its accuracy and validity. In other words, yeah I might come across inaccuracies from time to time, but it's my responsibility as a user to do something about it and defend the integrity of the resource. Huh!? I had never thought of it that way!! My old Brittanica when I was a kid was handed to me by the "experts"...now all of the sudden we're ALL experts when you pool our group knowledge like this. Pretty darn cool I must say.
Anyway, in the classroom there's a lot of potential here for wiki usage. Proper management and controls must be deployed, but wikis can help facilitate a lot of the learning we're trying to inspire - and can do so efficiently and effectively once we undertand their mechanics. Richardson poses several excellent examples for us (what I love about his book), but in particular, I've set a goal to become much more familiar with Planet Math.
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Wikipedia does take a leap of faith. I was always skeptical, however, a lot of the information that I looked up was pretty accurate.
ReplyDeleteI really dont understand why people would want to post false information, but I also dont understand why people would launch computer and network viruses, I guess some people just like screwing things up.