Wikis and Wikipedia

Wikis, in general, are a good option for collaborative projects and planning. They seem to still be the platform of choice for collaborative global projects like The Flat Classroom Project. The advantages are that it is a self-contained framework that allows multiple users to edit and add new content to appropriate parts of the Wiki.

The only experience I have had of using a Wiki as a student was with Hong Kong University. We used a Wiki to  report and document a number of lesson studies. It is still vital to plan as a group who does what so in that instance it still instills verbal and organizational teamwork in students.

Wikipedia is still a bone of contention in schools. Teachers seem loathe to the fact that it is the one stop shop for students to go to to get information. Why is this?
It's the fact that anyone can edit the information at any time without a due editing process. A vast majority of teachers use Wikipedia all the time but it's the validation of fact finding from numerous reliable and confirmed resources that teachers want to develop in their students.

photo © 2009 Johann Dréo | more info (via: Wylio)
One little spin-off from Wikipedia I would like to bring up is the social networking shadow schools need to be aware that they may be cast. Are schools aware that their profile is out there, being updated by people from outside their school. Who is running the school group on Facebook? How do they keep track of their Wikipedia entry making sure everything is accurate. There is a lot of ambiguity in schools at the minute; a lot of policies in place that students should not blog openly or use the school's name when they publish content on the web. When in fact, in my opinion, the work that students do in school with the school's name attached is the ONLY work that the school can observe fully.

It's a strange time for schools and social media content. There needs to be more thought from administration into the digital footprint of the school and which forms of public information they are able to manage and are willing to oversee.