So far, I've had several experiences through work and school with Wiki's and I have to say the results have not been stellar. I can see the educational value of them, especially as a collaborative space and a group work organizer. I have even heard of a couple that worked really well. What I've specifically learned from using them and hearing about them however, is purpose and maintenance is very important.
Photo by net-efekt on Flickr
Here is what I'm talking about...my first real experience was with a work wiki that my boss asked me to maintain as part of a curriculum review for the PE department at our school. We used it to store important documents that were needed by everyone access to. This worked well when it came to sharing resources such as example curriculum and templates for the review team to see. The problems arose when the teams were asked to edit these documents. What happened was that I would upload a document to edit, then different people would download the document, edit it and then....I'm not really sure what happened after that. Sometimes they would upload their updates, but then we had multiple copies. Or they would email me versions and I didn't know what was the most current. It all became very confusing. I think the major downfall of this wiki use was that the purpose of using the wiki wasn't clear. We weren't using it to write collaboratively on the wiki, put as a shared document holder. There are much better tools for this use so in the future, if I'm going to use a wiki, the number one thing I'll want to do is define the purpose.
Photo by akahodag on Flickr
Another really important part of wiki's and something that can be very frustrating to me as I'm and organizer, is the maintenance of wiki's. While it's a great collaborative tool, if not monitored, maintained and organized well, like just about anything, it can be really frustrating to use. This wiki is one example of something that hasn't been used in a while and has a mediocre organization structure. I found it hard to navigate and find what I was looking for. I tend to like my ducks in row, especially when working with students.
Despite having some bad experiences and seeing some examples that need work, I have seen many many that seem to work well. One Wiki that I have used that I really do like and can see the potential to go back to again as well as contribute to is this: Elementary Library Routines Wiki. This is great especially as a new librarian to get and try out new ideas on how to run a library. Some routines work in some places and not as well in others. But having a big list of ideas really helps. Also because it is something that has been and will be really helpful to me, I am really motivated to contribute to it as well to help others just like me.
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