CREATE A WIKISPACE, THAT'S WHAT!!
In my opinion, using a wiki in the media center would be a great idea. I could create a space that would be totally dedicated to the happenings in the media center, have a platform for advertising newly acquired books and/or technology, post links to reliable sources for group assignments and projects, upload videos of book talks for students, and also set up meeting spaces for teachers to ask questions or provide suggestions. One drawback that I have with wiki's is the design process. OMG, to get a picture in a certain spot is maddening!!!! I'm so particular about how things look on a website and if I can't have my product 100% it would drive me bananas. Another drawback is having multiple administrators with editing rights. Last semester, I took a course that required groups to create a wikispace. At times, it was a little difficult because things would get changed or moved around.
Apalachee High School Media Center's Wiki (http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7004.pdf)
Overall, I thought that Apalachee High School Media Center's wikispace was very well organized. Organization is imperative when creating any type of website. Things that I envisioned including on my wikispace was there. I liked everything about the site; however, the Learn, Read and Research links were the moist important, in my opinion. The Learn link led me to more links to lots of information, such as, collaborative projects & tools, resources by department,and each subject covered at the school (i.e. CTAE, Fine Arts, Language Arts, etc.) I didn't like that there were links to pages that didn't have any information on it. To me, that's a waste; why not list the subject and then make it live once you have information to post. Clicking on empty links, is time consuming and can become a nuisance, especially when you're looking for a particular thing. The Read link provided little blogs about what people were reading at that time and even suggested a few books with summaries that avid readers may want to check out. The problem I had with this is that it hadn't been updated in awhile. The last posts were in 2008. If you're going to have a space of this magnitude, it would be ideal to keep it updated regularly. Hopefully, I'll be able to create something like this in the future.
Library Success (http://www.libsuccess.org/)
Library Success is a wikispace that media specialists, librarians, or library volunteers may connect in a central location to collaborate on the successes and failures of using wiki's in the library. This page had so much information and I was definitely excited to explore. I was disappointed that a lot of the links, such as the "Community Portal", "Current Events", and "Help", weren't available. They had all been deleted. This all comes back to the accuracy/validity of the site. I went to view the members of the wiki and tried to click on their names to learn more about their background. There were a lot of members that hadn't been registered,or didn't have any information on the page. The more and more I poked around the site, the more I realized that there wasn't much info to access. There are plenty of links with useless information. The sites haven't been updated in years for goodness sake! Technology changes so fast and it's important to keep things up to date. You certainly don't want to distribute the wrong info.
Elements Needed to Promote Healthy, ACTIVE, Collaborative Spaces
In order for a wiki to be a successful place of collaboration, it's creator would need three things:
- People,
- Meaningful information, and
- Accuracy/Validity.
Without people, there wouldn't be any life to the space. The creator must also ensure that he/or she is providing meaningful information to the people. A consistent downfall that I witnessed after my explorations of Apalachee High School Media Center's Wiki and Library Success,
was lack of accuracy/validity. It's essential that if you decide to create a space, that you keep it as up to date as possible, even more so, as a Library Media Technology Specialist/Media Specialist/Librarian. You have to make sure that you are providing the most reliable material to your patrons.
Signing off for now :)
~Chasady
Cassidy: What a great way to present Wikis. As a group member I see that since you stated you are a perfectionist you will be great to have on our team to get our tech portfolio together. I think that like you say Wikis are a useful tool especially in the media center. If we could make time for the teachers to do all the neat little things that would make their jobs easier I say lets do it. I like the acceptable use form on the Barrow County web site that allows students to agree to use it wisely and then wiki till their hearts content. Wikis can help achieve good student and teacher practices as they cooperate together and create and design new skills. Yes, why reinvent the wheel I think it is important for teachers and media specialist to glean from other areas and collaborate their resources and share ideas with Wikis. I also think it is important to use it as a tool to advertise new books and older books that just don't get enough attention because their jackets have become dingy and worn. Wikis can be used for research projects and e portfolios as well linking standards to teachers and students. I think we as media specialist should start teaching about Wikis in fourth grade and grow from there.
ReplyDeleteWe are learning about lots of really neat and useful tools in our Library Media classes. And I want to use them all! I especially like the Pathfinders we learned about in our Reference class. These wikis were simple to learn but did take some time to get used to. I agree with you that just trying to add a picture proved to be more difficult than it should have been. And don't even try to add text around the picture! lol.
ReplyDeleteBut here's my thing ... these tools may be great but just like you mentioned, unless we keep them up to date, they are useless. And we don't want to work really hard on something then let it sit. Teachers and students won't waste their time checking back on our wikis or webpages if they know they aren't being updated. So if I'm going to use wikis I have to commit to keeping them current.
BTW, I like the way you made your post personal not just repeated what the articles said. :)
I completely agree with what everyone has said about a wiki needing to be up-to-date and regularly monitored in order to ensure that the links are viable and patrons are using the information. I think it is our job as Media Specialists to set the example for others and be sure to include specific lessons on wikis and advertise to our patrons all the added opportunities available for publication and collaboration on a school wiki. In thinking of keeping the wiki current, I came up with "Wiki Wednesdays" kind of like "Water Wednesdays". I always remember to water my plants on Wednesdays, likewise updating the school wiki could be a part of the Wednesday routine. Having a place for teachers to collaborate and share lessons or curriculum guides would be beneficial to everyone. I also like the idea of having a student book club or review section, as well as a place for patrons to suggest new books to purchase. Right now I have a clipboard out for students to suggest titles for purchase, but I think the wiki would be better for accessibility. Keeping things digital seems to engage our modern learners more effectively. Thanks again for the ideas that you presented and for making it interesting to read!
ReplyDeleteChasady, I love your enthusiasm and the way you presented your post! I agree that a wiki is a great way for teachers to collaborate with the Media Specialist. I see the Media Specialist as an added resource for teachers, and any input from a different perspective is always a bonus. In fact, I discussed this idea in a response post before I read your post! Since I’ve already talked about that, I’ll change the topic a bit.
ReplyDeleteI think a wiki for Media Specialists within a system would be beneficial. You mention how difficult it is to collaborate with colleagues within a school. It is equally difficult to share ideas, new technologies, and best practices with others at another school. Imagine if Media Specialists took on problem-based projects and worked together to come up with tools to solve them. Also, technology changes so quickly, it is very difficult for one person to always stay on top of the ever changing digital world. If Media Specialists work together within a digital community, such as a wiki, current information can be shared quickly and in one location.
I have looked at several wikis for Media Specialists, and the outdated information and dead links do add to the frustration of having lots of information at our finger tips that isn’t always useful, current, or relevant. I like Jennifer’s idea of having one day a week to update the wiki, much like I have for my webpage for my classes.
I absolutely can relate as this is my first year as a media specialist. Finding time for meaningful communication with teachers, administration, students, and parents is so difficult. A wiki is an excellent place to start especially if you have involvement from all parties. However, getting everyone to participate is nearly impossible. That, I feel would be the downfall to creating a wiki. As you suggested, it is a waste of time to be exploring for information and you find sections of a wiki to be outdated or no longer available or inaccurate. For a wiki to be continually successful, it would require a constant and consistent navigator to monitor and update frequently. Unless that is your full time job, this task would really be unrealistic.
ReplyDeleteDue to the fact that Wikis can be edited by anyone, in my opinion, they are not a fully reliable source for finding information. I can see wikis being similar to message or discussion boards without the ability to edit others work. With that said, in an educational setting a wiki could be fun for students to use to create a project but not really reliable for student research information or factual teacher collaboration.