Debbie's e-Portfolio

I had an opportunity to participate in the course discussion last week using a wiki, and I also co-authored a wiki entry for another ETEC course I’m taking this term. While I am familiar with Wikipedia as a user, I have never edited a section and have not used HTML prior to this term.

Summary of My Experience
It was a bit difficult navigating within the wiki environment due to my lack of familiarity with HTML coding. I am now much more comfortable with the coding conventions and the set up of a wiki having authored an entry and edited one by contributing to the course discussions last week. There is a rather steep learning curve associated with HTML and while I’m getting better at it, there are still things I have to research such as how to embed an image, how to format it, etc.

What Worked Well
Once I became familiar with the coding, the process of entering the information was not that difficult. I like the layout of the page and I can now appreciate the consistency that is applied to Wikipedia entries.

Challenges
The coding was the biggest challenge I encountered. When I started the wiki entry, I had to look up everything including the basics such as how to bold, underline, etc. Having mastered these items, I had to learn wiki entry conventions such as main headings versus subheadings. Adding an image and formatting it was also not as simple an exercise as I had envisioned. Finally, my research skills were put to use again when I wanted to create a link to another website, as well as to another wiki site within our course. While information on how to complete these tasks was readily available, it still took time to find them and tweak the coding to make it work.

It was also a bit challenging to write using a neutral point of view. It is not something that I have much experience with as I am always trying to make a point or convince the reader about my point of view. I’ll certainly need more practice to get better at it.

What Surprised Me
Once I learned some HTML coding, I realized that it’s really not that difficult. I’ve also been trying to practice some of the basics, such as bold, italics and underlining when completing my weekly posts in Vista. The best way for me to reinforce a new concept is to use it.