Reflecting on Wiki's

In this blog I will be reflecting on my experience with creating a WIKI.  I will be using a SWOT analysis as the scaffold for my analysis.

Strengths

• A very interactive and collaborative online tool in that all members of the wiki can add information and ideas
• Information is more private, as only those members who are invited to be part of the wiki can view the information and contribute to the wiki
• It's a virtual piece of white butcher's paper. When students aren't in close proximity where they can share their ideas and information easily, a wiki is a viable substitute as all members can contribute and respond practically in real time.

Weaknesses

• It can be frustrating working out how to use the wiki, for instance, it took me hours to successfully add a youtube video into my wiki
• relies on students having a good internet service
• cannot have more than one author at a time.  If two or more people are working in the wiki, only the work of one will be saved.
  

Opportunities

• As more or better information  is gained, the wiki can be added to and/or updated
• pages can cite other pages, link to videos etc so duplication is discouraged or removed
• this could be an extremely valuable tool for enouraging interaction between students from different schools and even in different countries.

Threats

• students must be able to be relied upon to follow the rules of etiquette and to use appropriate language when using a wiki  
• because everybody can contribute, and nobody has to, there is the chance that some team members may choose not to participate
• without appropriate scaffolding from the teacher, students may veer completely off topic, or be unaware of what is required of them

My reflection on creating a wiki

My initial introduction to wiki's has not been a particularly positive one, as I've ended up spending hours trying to put a youtube video into my wiki.  It's so incredibly frustrating when something that you know is probably incredibly simple, but you just can't understand how the technology works.  I finally got the video in, and it really was something quite simple that I was overlooking, but when you're not particularly tech savvy, sometimes you can't see the woods for the trees.

From what I have read about wiki's and the `play time' I have had in my wiki, I can certainly see how they could be very useful in the classroom environment.  As long as using a wiki, is contributing to the effective teaching of curriculum content, and is not used in the classroom simply as an online tool, with no actual relevance to the particular content being taught, I think they could be a great tool in a teacher's toolkit.

I'm already thinking of ways that I could utilise a wiki in my prac classroom.  I have a grade 4/5 composite class in a reasonably rural area of the Sunshine Coast and my cousin is a grade 4 teacher over in Taipei, so I'm really keen to explore how I could utilise a wiki for collaboration between the two classrooms.  Since the students would have very different lifestyles, cultural backgrounds etc, I think it would be fascinating for both myself and the students to engage in an interactive discussion about something that is currently being taught.