EDUC 639: Wiki Blog

Hello everyone! I don't know about you all, but I am really glad this week and this assignment has come to an end! We have all been very busy the past few weeks. I found that the wiki was really the most cumbersome part of the whole assignment. Our first encounter with the wiki occurred as a group while on a google hangouts session. While none of us had used a wiki before, we were all quite lost. In fact, we ended up setting up two different wikis that night just to play around and see which was the most user-friendly. At that time, we had issues with giving group members equal rights to edit and use the wiki. It seemed like we could all see the edits happening easily enough, but did not do so well with all being able to edit equally. At that time, we also added a graphic to the wiki which seemed easy enough to accomplish. I, honestly, do not think that using the wiki contributed or took away from my learning experience through this assignment either way. Yes, we learned the steps of setting up a wiki, but I cannot say that I grasped the entire concept of using a wiki and how it would benefit my future in this career path. I do, however, think it is an interesting tool to utilize and know how to use it and share your work with others. In addition, I do not think this activity hindered or helped my understanding or attitude of the subject matter. As I read through other people's wikis this week, it may very well help me in that respect, but not in developing our own wiki with our own subject matter we have written.

The final wiki edit was completed by our group member who actually created the wiki. We found it was much easier for one person to make the needed changes to website. While collaborating throughout the assignment, we used Google Hangouts and Google Docs to share our work and check in with each other. These seem to be much simpler forms of collaboration than the wiki. To try to get a better understanding of the wiki, I watched a couple of the videos displayed in the atomic learning section offered by Liberty. While these were somewhat helpful as to the creation of the wiki, our group (again) just felt it much easier to communicate by other means. So, as to answer the specific question posed in this blog, our group's final edit was made by one group member while the rest of us revised and insured we agreed with the format and layout of the website.

In between, again, our group communicated and provided feedback and input into the final documents needed to be placed on the wiki. We all as a whole made suggestions to the creator of the wiki, Shanna, as to what kinds of things needed to be displayed, including the title of the wiki, the contents of the page, the multi-media presentation, and the graphics of the digital badges that we used to spark interest on the page. We found formatting of the text within the wiki to be problematic as well. In all honesty, our group found easier ways to communicate throughout the assignment and have only used the wiki as a means to turn in and complete the necessary components of the assignment. I truly understand the intent of learning new technology related to methods of distributing information and am have learned this new feature, just have not been as enthused with its usefulness as other applications I have learned within this program. Throughout the assignment, I have felt my colleagues frustration and lack of interest in the wiki, as well. While we all agree this is certainly a trend on the internet today, its use just did not contribute to our overall project the way we expected.