Objective 17 - Wondrous Wikis

Intellectually I understand the difference between a wiki and a blog. A wiki is a quick, collaborative tool and a blog is a journal-style log. To be quite honest, until the 23 Things project I did not truly understand the value of either of these tools. Upon starting the 23 Things project I immediately fell in love with the set-up of a blog. The organization, the ability to add widgets – this is all very appealing to me. When I first approach Thing 17 I had the attitude of “get through this one quickly” – you know what it is. After reviewing oodles of wikis and reading some of the blogs of my fellow 23 Things colleagues, I began to envision uses for a wiki. One such possibility is the end of the year prizes conversations. In the past this information has been mailed to one person to collate. Boy, have we been wasting our time! Using a wiki each faculty member can record his/her thoughts. This is not only a time saver but information will not be repeated.

I explored lots of wikis that I want to probe a bit more.

• Free Stuff for Science Teachers
• Middle School Information Technology
• Moline High School - Audio Visual Department
• My Mind To Your Mind
• Resources4Learning
• Richmond Hill HS Technology Committee
• Runkle Technology
• Science and Learning
• SD36IMLExamples - Information and Media Literacy Examples from School District #36
• Study Skills
• TeachLibrary
• Teaching with Technology
• Tech4DI
• Web 2.0 Learning Tool
• Web in the Classroom
• webtoolsforeducators

I believe all of these wikis can be located with the More… link.

In one comment on a fellow 23 Things blog the question of wiki versus a Ning was posed. The question made me think – what is the difference? Why would I choose one over another? I think I would create a wiki for collaboration on a single project or more “short term” and a Ning for a more “long term” collaborative discussion with a particular group. The Ning feels like a more permanent part of the group that created it. I also seems like a Ning mimics the organization of a blog. Wikis seem to need a person in charge to make sure the posts are structured.

Objective 6 - Just Ninging Around

Sitting it the audience of a tech conference a few years ago – that was the first time I heard the term Ning. I actually put it on my list of things to investigate. The following year, at the same tech conference, I heard a few more tidbits about Nings. I thought to myself, “how great can they be?” Then I joined the MACUL Ning. This is a great place to go to read and share tech ideas. The concept of a Ning is very appealing to me. The idea of subscribing to a couple of Nings to interact with others interested on a central topic is worthy of my attention, but then so is Facebook, Twitter, and a dozen other social networking sites. I think it would be very valuable for a teacher to have a class Ning. One of the National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NETS-S) focuses on communication and collaboration. Many students at the middle and upper levels belong to some social networking group; however, this was one of the lowest scored areas by our current Freshman students when they completed an eighth grade technology competency exam. Providing a Ning may give students’ opportunities to collaborative in an environment that is focused on a specific area as well as capitalize on the concept that students are social beings.