E-SPEAIT Week 3

 

Wikis are a create tool for collaboration and active learning. People who have access to it can also edit and add their own knowledge. Like Wikipedia, global crowd sourced encyclopedia. If you want to create a wiki and are afraid that some stranger might edit the content and delete or alter the information, it is possible to have private wikis. Only giving access to chosen people. But why would you want a wiki and how can it be useful?

Wiki is great to collect information from different people and have it all stored in one place. I have seen a simple explanation for why Wikis are wonderful tool, and it is as follows. Four friends want to go for a camping trip, and they are planning it at their homes behind a computer. When sending emails back and forth, it is going to get clustered pretty quick and it becomes a headache to find certain information. So, they create a wiki page that they all can edit. When planning what supplies to bring along they can all add things into the wiki page. Person 1 writes that they need water and food. Person 2 edits that page and adds a tent and a knife. Person 3 also edits and adds a flashlight and a rope. Now the wiki page has all the items that everyone added.

Wikis help to gather information and effectively collaborate. Another example can be when students create a wiki for a history class. They use it to write down what they learned. Since students might remember some parts of the lesson better than other parts, then a collective wiki, where every student adds something, helps to get a better overview of the lesson.

If everyone can edit the Wiki pages you might also be wondering how Wikipedia can make sure that all the information is true. As far as I am concerned, you can’t. Since everyone can edit, someone can just make up a story. Sometimes there is false information and errors that remain unnoticed. That’s why Wikipedia is not a reliable source, but under the page you can find “References” which indicates where the information is from.  Wikipedia does have administrators who protect some pages from direct editing that might be a target for vandalism. It relies on its community to improve the quality and accuracy of information.

Thanks to Wikis we can collaborate and collect information effectively. Wikipedia has grown to be a global encyclopedia thanks to volunteers who create articles. It should be taken into account that articles are only as good as the editors who made them, considering their education and background or the source they use.