Wikiography
At the start of my M.Ed program, the only idea of a wiki I had was wikipedia, which I thought professionals created. During my time at UOIT, I have completed several courses which required us to contribute to a class wiki. I had no idea what that was. Eventually, I came to learn that a wiki is "a website which allows users to add, modify,or delete content" (www.wikipedia.com). It invites users to edit any page or create a new page within the wiki site. Thus, allowing users to continuously contribute. A wiki promotes meaningful connections between different pages by making page link creations. I realized that it was very similar to a blog, which I had no experience in using or creating but at least I knew how it was used. Throughout my Principles of Learning course, we were to contribute to a class wiki that was already created by a previous class. Our task was to contribute to the course wiki by creating or modifying entries on learning theories, theorists and researchers. We were also to take a look at other entries to add to them and revise them. My first interactions with the wiki were very negative. I was not sure how to create a new entry or add connecting links. It was very frustrating. However, once I spoke to my peers and professor, I was able to which allowed me to start creating my entries. I had gotten the hang of creating, editing and modifying entries and was on a roll. Until it came to adding pictures to a post. This was the most frustrating part of leaning how to use a wiki because I wanted to figure it out on my own. Eventually, I was able to upload a picture onto a page but was unsuccessful in linking the image to the page I wanted it to be on. Thankfully, once again I received help from my peers and was successful. Learning how to use a wiki was important to my learning because I will be able to use this knowledge as a teacher. I can create a website for my class on specific topics and as a class we will be able to individually contribute to the wiki. This will allow those students who are shy to speak up in class to shine through technology and give them an opportunity to contribute. Once we got the hang of contributing to the course wiki, we were told to become "wikimittees". These are committees that take on a specific product improvement roles. We were told to put ourselves into groups based on the following roles; visual appearance technical help, planning and direction, information accuracy, promotion and sharing, quality sources, publishing student work, language and grammar, and uniqueness/anti-plagiarism. I chose to look at quality sources. My team and I completed this by breaking up the entries and checking the references on each page to ensure that it was from a creditable source.
The course wiki can be accessed by clicking the button below:
The course wiki can be accessed by clicking the button below:
Artifact
This artifact is a wikiography which I completed after contributing to the class wiki. It is a personal reflection on my experience with using the wiki and my contributions. During the course the contributions I made are a biography page, Sigmund Freud, Erik Erikson, Urie Bronfenbrenner, tranformative learning theory, as well as several definitions. This reflection was important to me during my M.Ed. because it was the first reflection that I had completed. It allowed to me to to be open and voice my frustrations. This was something that I was always afraid to do, to show negativity in a personal reflection.
patelroshni.docx | |
File Size: | 21 kb |
File Type: | docx |
References
Wiki. Retrieved November 4, 2012 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki.