My odd, quirky (weird – whatever you want to call it) sense of humour creeps its way into my professional life at times, and one of the things I like doing is finding comics that can serve as metaphors for concepts.
One of my favorites of course is a Mutts cartoon that I use as a metaphor for the developmental nature of e-portfolios. I even went so far as to get permission to use it for educational purposes.
Well … today’s paper contains a Betty cartoon that may provide a light hearted focal point for a discussion around reluctance for contributing materials (our “stuff”) for re-use.
Check out today’s Betty cartoon…
http://www.comics.com/comics/betty/archive/betty-20050508.html
Betty did not quite expect the use that the person obtaining the bear intended…
In workshops that I’ve participated in, and that Brian Lamb often facilitates, a common “challenge” identified by faculty is that someone will use their materials out of context, or change them in a way that they would not have….
Identifying this and other challenges usually leads to good discussions about social and technology issues.
I’m thinking this cartoon may come in handy….
And besides, it is kind of funny…
And of course.. FoxTrot’s take on wikis this week is not half bad either…
I like the comic references on your blog. I wish reading the Sunday funnies made me more intelligent :)) Maybe educational comic strips are the way of the future.
Hi Michelle:
Is the editing function of wikis their strength or their weakness?
Sorry for such an obtuse question — but it has been bouncing in my head for some time, but it took your blog and that foxtrot cartoon for bringing it out.
mike harttrup
Hmm…
Good question. The editing function allows anyone to post, but also has a way to revert to former versions of the page in case someone makes a change that the original author does not agree with.
I find them a strength… but some people are not comfortable with this more open approach. We also find that people want to be able to restrict who can post.
That type of functionality is often dependent on the wiki software used.
Brian Lamb has a number of pages that discuss the strengths and weaknesses of wikis…
You might want to check out the following for some more ideas along these lines:
Adventures in Wikiland – http://careo.elearning.ubc.ca/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?AdventuresInWikiland
Wiki on Wiki (workshop)
http://WikiOnWiki.notlong.com