Wiki love – a reflection

What I knew

The little bit that I knew of wikis (thanks to this great video recommended by the super-savvy Lyn Giebels) suggested that wikis are an accountable form of sharing information and contributing to an idea. I liked the fact that they are dynamic. I had a sense that because of the evolving nature of information on a wiki, it represented the most up-to-date school of thought on an issue or idea. They appeared to be a very democratic way of sharing ideas and information (when structured properly) because all class members can contribute as long as they have access to the internet.


What I wanted to know

Typical of me with a new piece of technology, I wanted reassurance that a wiki was reasonably simple to use in its most basic format. I remembered times in my own education when the excitement of a new piece of technology overtook the learning process or the content knowledge (the perfect example of where too much emphasis on “TK” inhibits the delicate TPACK balance).

Reproduced by permission of the publisher, © 2012 by tpack.org


What I’ve learned

I learned very quickly that, indeed, engaging in a wiki is a very simple process, where it’s easy to forget that you’re not just working in your own word document, adding information around the existing text. Contributing to the mobile phones wiki was as simple as hitting edit, making your changes and then pressing save.

For the task to be effective from a pedagogical and content perspective, I can see that the scaffolding is really important. A blank sheet of paper, whilst potentially giving great breadth to the ideas people can contribute, could create a confusing mix of ideas or information, where little cohesive value can be drawn from the wiki. The question posed by Wendy and then scaffolded using de Bono’s six thinking hats provided the perfect mix of direction and flexibility for people’s ideas to be varied, but working towards a cohesive, reasoned argument.

There is a risk of over-writing somebody else’s text but with care, this risk would be minimised. To me the trade-off of being able to have everybody contribute is well worth small, and reversible, impacts of an accidental deletion.

The other thing I learned in the mobile phones wiki is the strange sense of achievement you experience from having engaged in a live document. You do feel like you’re part of something bigger when contributing to a wiki online.

What I now want to know

There were a couple of instances where people’s contributions weren’t visible on the Wiki after they had pressed “save”. As discussion proceeded it became obvious that if somebody else was posting at the same time, one person’s changes may not appear or be recorded. I am interested to know whether this is a product of the simple wiki we’re using or a universal issue?

Something I wanted to know (and 12 seconds after emailing Wendy Fasso, I received a positive response) is whether a wiki can be private so only certain people can view or add info? Wendy’s response was that, yes, until the wiki is published (the $1 process) it is, by default, private. And, better than that, you can invite five people to be members of it in that time too (W Fasso, personal communication, 19 March 2013).

I can see so many applications for a wiki in the learning environment but also in a small business environment. Now my task is just to convince three farmers that the daily work plan should be managed on a wiki….