Wiki learning
by HJDeW ~ June 12th, 2011. Filed under: e-toolkit learning, Reflection.Wiki Learning
I have had several experiences creating wikis – through UBC MET course ETEC 510 (http://sites.wiki.ubc.ca/etec510/Hypertext), wikis created for work related projects and also personal wiki spaces to collect information. The wiki done for ETEC 510 was an intense experience that challenged me to code in HTML to get the page to work the way I wanted it to. The embedded images, chart, headings, etc gave me great pride when I managed to get them done they way I had hoped. Using code from other wiki pages and then replacing information to adapt it to the necessary content was one way around coding from scratch. Two interesting items that I discovered while doing this wiki project were the 5 pillars (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Five_pillars) and the criteria established for the top ranked ‘featured article’ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_list_criteria that make Wikipedia articles effective sources of information.
Using WYSIWYG software like Wikispaces makes it so much easier to get up and organized quickly. I found the wikispaces format intuitive to use and was able to modify structures and content with little trouble. Giving access to others was also easily done.
One challenge that I still experience with wikis is the changing and editing of other people’s content. Unless I am very familiar with the other collaborators, I am uncertain and uncomfortable in editing without permission, either through formal permissions granted or through familiarity of other’s acceptance of changes.