Weighing in a little late here, our wiki activity last week in ETEC 565 did not hold my attention. Granted I was a little distracted by an assignment in my other course (just submitted – yay! – hence, it’s time to catch up here), I found the wiki less than wonderful. Instead, it left me waiting and wondering.
Trying to be organized (anticipating the then-upcoming distraction), I checked in early on the wiki. I did get my thoughts posted in decent time, but then I found I was waiting for others, but it became an out-of-sight-out-of-mind issue. Given that the majority of our discussions happen in the discussion forum, designed for discussion and asynchronicity, I didn’t like that I had to go through to the learning modules, then to the wiki – too many clicks, and for what? To accomplish the same task that we could have done in the discussion forum.
I do like wikis. For anything due for group editing, they work well. For our summary, it works well. Fetya posted the challenges and strategies and then they are perfectly editable by anyone in the group. We could likewise use Google Docs, a Wetpaint site or a PB Works site. But this served the purpose.
It also served another purpose though: it showed us how wikis don’t work. Wikis are not the best choice for discussion. A threaded discussion is much more organized and efficient.
Given our objectives of learning about learning technologies and how to select appropriately, I’d say the task worked. By putting us in a situation that incorporated both good and bad application, we got to experience both under one roof so to speak.
