Post #5 Wikis and eLearning Tools

Wikis-
When the week began I was thinking that I knew all about wikis because I have used them in previous classes. I have not, however, created my own before and doing this really helped me understand what a wiki is all about. I had a “light bulb” moment about wikis as I watched the YouTube overview that was provided by Dr. Wickersham. As I thought about creating a wiki, two ideas came to mind; one that is more professional and one that is personal. A professional wiki that I created this week was one that relates to the school library. The title of the wiki is, “library wish list”. This wiki is a place where teachers can log on during the school year and list books and materials that they would like to have purchased for the library. This would take the burden off of the librarian as far as keeping up with such a list and teachers could add and remove ideas at will. The second wiki that I created this week is related to the Sunday school class that I teach with 3 other women. We have a schedule that we are constantly emailing back and forth as we add our names to teach. I created this on Monday and already it is working great. Everyone was willing to try it and it is making things so much easier. I love the fact that the wiki notifies me when the wiki has been edited because then I know to go in and check the schedule and see how it has changed. The biggest advantage that I see with a wiki is the ease that it provides in informing others and allowing each person to edit the wiki for all to see. One disadvantage that I think could be an issue is the editing factor. It you have a larger group using the wiki; there is the possibility of something being removed or changed that should not have been. My library wish list wiki I think is better left in the hands of teachers because if I were to allow student to have access and editing privileges I might have problems. I think that wikis are a great way to engage digital natives because they are used to finding a way to use technology to accomplish their goals. Adding the technology factor allows these wikis to be much more portable and anyone can access them at anytime as long as they have an Internet connection.

eLearning Tools-

I think that the eLearning wiki is one that could be very helpful to teachers. It allows you to see a variety of Web 2.0 tools at a glance and find the one that meets your needs at the time. One of the tools that I was interested in using in the future and learning more about is Podcasts. I think that podcasts would be a great tool to use in the library for some of those instructional activities that you need to use over and over. I could create a podcast that informs patrons about the basic search techniques when using a database, another helpful podcast would remind patrons of the library rules and finally, I thought, that a podcast that states the basics about copyright policies would be helpful.