Q: What did you find interesting about the wiki concept?
A: While I like the example of the friends using a wiki to plan their camping trip, it would be a long time before I could see myself using this as a way to plan a project. It is way too out in the open for the drafting process for me. Wikis are a tool to share information, not for drafting it together as the tools in Thing 9 are. Plus, I have yet to find a wiki tool that I like the look of. So far, I don’t like the way navigation tools and pages are displayed in wikis.
I like the concept of a wiki to collect and share information in a format other than reverse chronological order (which is what the blog is).
Q: What types of applications within libraries and schools might work well with a wiki?
A: The libraries that are using wikis with their public have some interesting projects, like the Book Lovers Wiki, and I think something like Hennepin County Library’s Fugitive Fact File would work well as a wiki. I’m currently lingering on how wikis (provided we used some decent-looking layouts and it resides on internal servers) can help with internal work flow and communication. I like the idea of communicating everything one needs to know to plan (for example) summer reading programs via a wiki.
Q: Many teachers/faculy “ban” Wikipedia as a source for student research. What do you think of the practice of limiting information by format?
A: I’m fine with not accepting Wikipedia as a resource for student research. However, I am saddened when teachers ban a format. It is important to teach the difference between Wikipedia and The Encyclopedia Britannica database, but I see many parents and children coming in and saying that they cannot use Internet resources. The way you access it does not affect the quality of the information. It affects the way you search for and browse through the information, but not the quality of the information itself.
I do appreciate the idea of requiring books as a source for research. I think people need to know how to find books and how to use an index.
Q: Which wiki did you edit?
A: I added the Library 2.0 ning group as a resource for the 23 Things wiki.
