Change, underestimated?

Stumbling upon the Paris in Prison photos on a wiki site made me realise the scope of wiki’s for a wider purpose, not that I’m encouraging you to create a fan site for the socialite but it was funny all the same.

While I find writing a blog entry a chore at times, contributing to wikipedia or a wikispace is fairly easy. All you have to do is click on the edit tab and while having rubbish written on a wiki does happen it is easy enough with PBWiki or any of the other free options such as Ben Nolan’s and  Foopad really it is a matter of personal preference. For some examples of ones being used by teachers check out this wiki or this one on pbwiki. Some of the quotes from the page express its simplicity

The results have been great. Simple to use (no reading of instructions), bugs
that we had with uploads were fixed without having to report them, and the
service is fast.
- Doug Chang, private tutor

technorati tags:wiki, education

I visited ratemyteacher the other day just to see how it was going and whether I had received any further slating’s from disgruntled year 10’s, much to my dismay not a single hit since the end of last year for Katikati College. This then has got me thinking about the ongoing wikipedia arguement over its accuracy. Remember last year when TV and print media talked extensively about ratemyteacher and suddenly it was important, there we were thinking it was going to be an issue, just like bird flu and SARS yet what happened, nothing.

I use wikipedia extensively in my teaching and for up to date information feel that it hands down beats the newsmedia. Example being the recent events in Virginia, while the media were showing us the killer and videos (sells great tv) on wikipedia I could read about Professor Liviu Librescu who held the door of his classroom shut while events were unfolding and was killed protecting his class.

There are certainly limits to a user edited encyclopedia but where else would I find an entry on New Zealand Schools and many other topics. So give it a go click on random link and see where it takes you.

Came across this table on Darren Drapes Blog, would be interested to see what a NZ based chart would show. Incidentally the quiz is located at pew international and you can probably guess which category I was in.