Week 7: Thing #16

Wiki, Wiki, Wiki! I feel like I am in Hawaii waving down that little bus!

I spent some time browsing several of the wikis suggested. I really enjoyed the Book Lovers Wiki. When I got onto the teacherlibrarianwiki site, I found some great links that I tagged for my del.icio.us account. These wikis all seemed to be well organized and appropriate. I was worried that I would see a lot of nonsense.

As I read through the Discovery Resources, I made a list of pros and cons for the wiki idea. Here is what I have come up with so far...
Pros
*I love using the wiki instead of email for ongoing conversations (thanks for starting that up Ann!)
*Great place for story writing & editing
*Collaborative projects (way too many ideas to write here) would be awesome on a wiki
*Note taking and sharing with classmates, conference peers, etc.
*Book purchase suggestions (for a specific library, limited invitation list if possible)
*Book reviews among students, staff & parents (again, limited audience)
*Grant writing projects
*Long term projects among a group of people
*Best for older students and adults

Cons
*People messing it up, not taking it seriously
*Not a reliable source for students to use for their research. It would be very important for students to be taught how to tell the difference between a wiki and a reliable source

I think that a Ning might work well for many situations instead of the wiki. I think that is the controlling side of my brain speaking up. I do like the idea of having one person in control of the site. With a Ning, the members can email information to be posted directly to the Master of the Ning. I think that this method would keep the site true to its original goal.

The wiki has a place for some. I would really like to see students educated about the differences between the different types of sites.