Heather Wik ETEC 565

This week we used a class wiki to discuss challenges and strategies in using social media in classrooms. The experience of creating a wiki compared using the threaded discussions in our LMS was rather enlightening.  Some of the things I really liked about the wiki were:

• Felt like one large class discussion, rather than a whole lot of smaller ones
• At first I felt like I needed to put my name behind my contributions, but as time went on, that feeling diminished and I just focused on being a part of the community and the learning process.
• Great collaboration opportunity
• Easy to edit
• Flexible structure allows for organizing group ideas

Some of the challenges in the wiki format were:

• Organization – it required somebody taking the bull by the horns and setting up a structure (which really helped once it was set up!)
• Finding what the new or updated content was since the last time I viewed (figured out the “watch” feature a bit too late!)
• Working in the timeline – I had to get my input complete by Friday as I would not have computer access on the weekend, and as not everyone posted earlier in the week, it created a challenge for me to be a part of the finalizing process
• Editing – only one person can edit at a time, which can be a pain when a lot of people are needing to access it
• Requires more tech skill

I really enjoyed a change from discussions this week, and  I appreciated how we could grow each others’ ideas more fluidly in the wiki context.  For example, under the “challenges”, I simply wrote “Copyright”,  as I didn’t have time right then to expand my thoughts, but I wanted to get the idea down.  The next time I came back, others had expanded the topic wonderfully!  It was easy to come back and edit throughout the week, and I particularly liked the sense of group ownership that was established.  A great activity!