Advantages
- Interactive - wiki's allow several people to contribute to materials, edit if given rights and be engaged in the development process.
- Collaborative - because of the flexibility in editing on a single topic, several people or groups of people can contribute to a wiki. Because of this flexibility, people from all over the globe can contribute to and engage in the same wiki, sharing information freely.
- Easily modified - some topics, technology for example, are always evolving. Information could change during the time it takes to publish a book, but with a wiki, it is easy to access and update data as evolution of thoughts, ideas and new research is presented.
- Dynamic - wiki's allow content to be presented dynamically, not relying on time stamped changes to impact the quality of the materials delivered (West, 2009). There are also so many different widgets now available that are easy to use and can be plugged into a wiki making the content interactive.
Disadvantages
- Interactive - if wiki's aren't protected, then they can be updated by anyone, so there is opportunity for non-applicable contributors to add, edit and delete important data to wiki's.
- Technical - wiki's can be basic or advanced depending on the level of comfort of the wiki developer(s). There can be a huge learning curve for someone who has never had the opportunity to work with wiki's in the past or don't have the comfort level with technology. This can take away from the learning experience. In a collaborative environment, this can also be detrimental if one group member has a higher comfort level than another and doesn't feel they can contribute.
This wiki was shared on another blog, but was done in Dr. Royce Ann Collin's Social Foundations last spring. It is awesome, I really encourage you to check it out. The ladies that put it together really set the bar high.
Reference
King, K.P., & Cox, T.D. (Ed.). (2011). The professor's guide to taming technology Information Age Publishing.West, J. A., & West, M. L. (2009). Using wikis for online collaboration. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.
I am so flattered! The Feminism Wiki is my group project from Social Foundations. I loved it so much, I referenced it as well on my own blog, but it means much more that you liked it! That was truly the best group experience I have had in this program. We did have one group member that did not contribute, but the rest of us worked equitably. It was also the most collaborative. All of us started out with assigned sections for content, but if during our own research we found something we thought was relevant to someone else's section, we threw it on their space for them to play with. No one person dominated or got emotional over ideas that were initially great but ended up on the cutting floor. Although I was the primary editor, there was a series of videos that I could not get to line up just right with some other graphics. Something was off visually, which is usually a strength of mine. Just as I was getting frustrated, one of my group members took one look at it in and in 5 minutes had the layout arranged perfectly. That is indicative of my experience with those ladies and why I think we turned out a good product. All working towards one goal without ego. In many ways, it restored my faith in the group project. Thanks again for the complement. You made my morning!
ReplyDeleteVianne, you guys did such an amazing job on that wiki!! I have referenced it in my other course that I am taking right now as well. The design is outstanding! That was what really impressed me, especially how organized the content was. Great job! It is so impressive to see how engaging the materials can be when presented in such a neat way. Thanks again!
ReplyDeleteBrandi,
ReplyDeleteI believe we noticed a lot of the same advantages and disadvantages and agree with you that it is a great tool for adult learners. It will be interesting to see if what you say in your technical con happens in this class (about the comfort level); I notice there are a few first timers to Wiki as well as those who have created quite a few.
Collaboration is the name of the game; West & West (2009) say “online students have the capacity to become collaborative partners in the knowledge-building process”. I very much agree with that assessment (that’s what we all are currently doing in this class), but will the technological newbie (or at least Wiki newbie) be overwhelmed by the tech savvy collaboration partners?
Brandi,
ReplyDeleteAs Dean points out, and I think we have all hit on the same basic set of pros and cons. The security aspect is one that is very important too. As you point out, unless it is locked/private, etc., most wiki sites are not the most secure means of working a project. It would be a nightmare to have a group of students diligently work a project to find that it had been hacked and deleted/changed but some malcontent online. I think it is very important to ensure that the wiki site you choose as an educator is secure so that this type of online vandalism does not occur. This is also mentioned in the West text (p. 16) and I was really surprised that security issues were not mentioned at all in the King text on wikis.
Shawn