Wikis

 

            A wiki is an open source format that users can build and generate information from. Wikis have numerous advantages. The first is the user or users collective bring information together to the space, and also anyone can edit the information in the wiki. Sources of information, including video, text, and audio can be linked or embedded into the wiki. Another advantage is the ability to revert the page to previous versions, in addition wiki allows users to see who made edits. The ability to create a wiki is easier as there are numerous open source wikis to choose from with straight forward formats. A main component of wikis is the ability for anyone with internet access has access and edit capabilities worldwide.

              Some of the advantages of a wiki can also be their disadvantages. With many editors information can be inaccurate and unreliable and as the wiki grows the information can become disorganized in its structure. Finally, a major disadvantage is keeping out unwanted spam and vandalism. Employing a manager to the wiki would take numerous hours to ensure no harm comes to the wiki. A new feature is to allow only certain people to edit reducing this time constraint.

            Wikis in the media center is a good idea, but a substantial amount of work hours are needed to monitor the wiki(s) for individual classes or media center use. Teachers and media center specialists are already burden in their daily duties. Time would be needed for students to learn the system. Though there are some uses that would be beneficial for the media center and a class. Students working on a class project that have different teacher or a different class period could compose the project on the wiki. For the media center, a basic tutorial could be created for an overview of the media center. Personally, I do not like wikis that well, and it might be because I have not have much experience with them. As others have noted, wikis are more of a box of information and not very interactive.