Week 3 Assignment - Wikis and Web 2.0

Goals for this weeks:

• learning Web 2.0
• playing with wiki’s - Link to my wiki

Most of us have been utilizing a Web 2.0 concept for a number of years when we Google our searches. Google results are base on links no big realization there. The a ha moment for me is when O'Reilly points out the links are established by people. People, you and I linking similar ideas and concepts together. Creating as he calls a collective intelligence and as Michael Wesch challenges us to organize, publish, and share.

Exploring the Web 2.0 tools and uses for better teaching for kids the concept of a wiki is a fun one to get a handle on. Last week sitting up a blog and RSS was easy and entertaining. I could easily build an understanding of what a blog is but distinguishing a blog from a wiki was a bit of a challenge until in my research I came across the description of a wiki community. Then it clicked. A wiki is a community thoughts and plans with all members able to make a contribution. Membership is defined by the wiki itself and no one person. Interesting concept illustrated at Wikipedia.

Using this Web 2.0 tool with High School students:

This could be a lot of fun. Since I teach High School Computer Technology classes. The 1st step may be to create a wiki with pages for each of the topics I teach.  This could serve as a shell for students to share their work by posting on their individual pages or in community pages. This could also serve as a tools for students to help students. You need some feedback on a presentation you are about to give in Oral Communictions. You could post a link to a google presentation and see what the community thinks. Or you are looking for a cost effective alternative to Photoshop and someone may have experience with gimppixlr. or

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Reading/Sources/ Notes:

Web 2.0.. The Machine is Us/ing US  Michael Wesch- Data is the driving force behind what is being created. The data is going beyond text to all forms of media... Leaving it to user to organize and make meaning from it. 
 "Web 2.0 is linking people.. people sharing, trading, and collaborating"
Add on to the rethinking is how are we educating students.. 


Google Blog Search for Michael Wesch

• tedx KC. -Great Reference to Postman... In relation to what may be done in the mid 80s
• Where as today we may all have a voice to create change
• Connect
• Organize
• Share
• Collect
• Collaborate
• Publish

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Tim O'Reilly  What is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software. - History and Beliefs behind Web 2.0

Create a Wiki at http://pbworks.com/

• Check out my Wiki Here
• Revisit the O’Reilly article I asked you to read above
• Pick some portion of the article (one or two pages or so)
• Summarize the key points of your section in your wiki page
• Link a few of the terms or ideas to other web pages on the Internet that provide further information about that term or idea
• Create and link to at least one other wiki page of your creation within your wiki site to elaborate on a particular idea or aspect of your section of the article. Or split your summary in two and have the first page link to a second page. This means your personal wiki site will have at least two pages that you create.
• Create a new posting in your blog and within this blog posting, create a link to your wiki site. Make this a hot link so people don’t have to cut and paste the link into their browser  we should be able to click on the link and be sent directly to the front page of your wiki. I will deduct points if this is not a clickable link in your blog post.

core competencies of Web 2.0 companies:

• Services, not packaged software, with cost-effective scalability
• Control over unique, hard-to-recreate data sources that get richer as more people use them
• Trusting users as co-developers
• Harnessing collective intelligence
• Leveraging the long tail through customer self-service
• Software above the level of a single device
• Lightweight user interfaces, development models, AND business models

Reflection Activity

• Based on your readings, the videos and your experience setting up and using a wiki space, do you have some ideas about how you could use a wiki in your teaching or elsewhere in your work or life? Describe an idea for an activity you might do with learners that would involve the use of a wiki.
• Do you have other thoughts about wikis?