In case you haven't been on the internet for the past 5-10 years, a wiki is a website anyone can edit using a web browser. Generally, it will offer encyclopedic style knowledge on topics that are either non-fictional, on fictional universes and even weird underground cult hits.
The most popular and extensive wiki in the world, without a doubt, belongs to Wikipedia, which I am sure you have all been to at least once in your academic lives. Wikis are a great free database for knowledge. It does give you a excellent summary of the topic at hand but where it really shines is giving users cited sources to use for research purposes. Many academic supervisors discredit the use of Wikipedia, but they cannot deny the sources.
Source: http://www.holyroodconnect.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Wikipedia.jpg
I use Wikipedia to not only look up things for school assignments and group projects, but also on topics that pique my interest and enjoy in my leisure time. Not only does it house academic information, but it also can tell you how tall Conan O'Brien is, who Floyd Mayweather Jr. is fighting next and what it means to be Rick Rolled.
The main difference between a wiki and either a blog, google drive or evernote is that everyone is open to edit the topic. Truthfully, the way I use a wiki is very different from the way I would use blogs, google drive or evernote. It is already in my PLE and there's no foreseeable date when it will be ever removed. Blogs I generally use for news, google drive I use for group projects and evernote is for making notes to myself. I use wikis for thorough knowledge on academic topics and topics of interest. Nothing will be added, removed, or replaced in my PLE this week.
Wikis can be a great tool to nurture learning. When I was younger and had to do more group projects, our teacher's disapproval of Wikipedia was always something that surprised me. While anyone is able to edit the content of the page, most academic pages were accurate 99% of the time and attempts to present misleading information were usually both obvious and very rare. It wasn't until my friend pointed out it didn't matter anyways, and then I saw the light.
Source: http://shaqface.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/wpid-nlwkfs.gif
Wikipedia's cited sources section is all you need. Wikipedia simply aggregates the information and presents it in summary format. It gives you an idea of what the topic is about and even provides footnotes as to where they got the information so you are not endlessly looking through its provided sources for relevant information. If anything, I believe teachers should be promoting the use of Wikipedia.
This week's Feedly contribution comes from NPR. It discusses the efforts automobile companies are making to make cars increasingly driverless. With a desire not to be outdone by tech giant Google, several automakers are putting in their efforts to continue their road dominance. We already have cars that parallel park themselves and check blind spots. Before we know it, we won't even realize we will have to do none of the work ourselves. How about we flying cars already instead?
Thanks for sharing Mark!
ReplyDeleteRE: It gives you an idea of what the topic is about and even provides footnotes as to where they got the information so you are not endlessly looking through its provided sources for relevant information. If anything, I believe teachers should be promoting the use of Wikipedia.
Before using Wikipedia, always check the sources. There have been cases of misinformation posted. The best course of action is to obtain material from various sources.