This week I spent some time with wikis. I looked at WikiHow, and low and behold there was an article with a number of strategies that I wish I would have had sooner in life about how to give a cat medicine. If only I had known these things 10 years ago, my sickly, but still very much alive cat might still love me. My husband, who has been waging a battle with the ant, just got recipes for a new less toxic, homemade arsenal.
Children’s series binder could be useful when questions about what come next in a series come up. http://seriesbinder.lishost.org/index.php/Main_Page
A few weeks ago, tech in-service presenters from several schools in the district (including me) were able to add items to the agenda, and add links for the presentation in the in-service wiki. I will try to make a pathfinder using a wiki, as Joyce Valenza suggests in her article Ten reasons why your next pathfinder should be a wiki http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1340000334/post/1620010962.html
Now I just need to choose between the 2 open source wikis I now have accounts in: Pbwiki and Wikispaces. I tried to compare them with Wikimatrix, but I can’t really tell the difference. I need something easy, with no ads if used for educational purposes that can be private if needed.
I remember the great debate about Wikipedia a few years ago. I do use wikis as a source of information. They are a format. Some are more useful than others. I let students read them for background on a subject, but also ask them to look in other sources to verify specific information. I have spotted misinformation in Wikipedia, but I have also seen typos or misleading generalizations in print encyclopedias and some nonfiction books, especially those written for children.
When I first heard about open source wikis a few years ago, I thought they might be a great way to write district library policy documents (like the materials selection and copyright polices) which are typically edit by 6+ people. We have yet to try this. Printing from a wikis is not always pretty.
I like the features of social bookmarking with tagging. I wonder how to combine tagging with a wiki. I also wonder if I can do a library newsletter a wiki, rather than using a blog. The wiki is a little easier to edit, but you don’t have the same control over approving the comments.
Mostly, the name wiki is just cool.
