Creating our own Wiki was actually kind of fun. I think that it would be a excellent way to set up a group research project and monitor the groups progress along the way at their various mile stones. This would be much more fun to work with the the old fashion group term paper!
What the difference between a blog and a Wiki? Blogs are simply online journals. They convey the writers thoughts and emotions. They are a great place to express one's creativity and post photos. Blogs are the property of the individual who writes them. A Wiki on the other hand is an editable online platform that can be updated by multiple users in real time. Wikis allow the reader (or Wiki members) to collaborate by creating, modifying and organizing a web page.
When is one more appropriate to use than the other? Wikis are appropriate for applications that involve multiple authors, and require that this work be edited by a group or team. Since things are continuously changing and growing rapidly, Wiki are ideal to keep up with what's current.
Should you allow your students to use wikis as valid sources for academic research? and Would you allow your students to submit a paper to you that cites a wiki as a source? On our Wiki (http://learningtogetherwithtechnology.wikispaces.com) there is an entire section dedicate to "Trusting Wiki's". The author is of the opinion that Wiki's have a great potential to be trusted resources and I agree that with proper monitoring they could be. On the other hand open source Wiki's, like Wikipedia can be modified by any of its users. The problem with that being that false information might make it on to any page. Wikipedia is monitored for quality on a regular basis but that's not to say that things don't slip through the cracks on occasion. In addition, wiki pages are not specifically reviewed by experts int he field and because of this fact Wikipedia is not a valid source for academic research. For this reason I would not allow for the use Wikipedia in research papers, though I do often say the it is a great place to start to gather basic information on a subject.
What policies could wikis enforce that could garner more confidence from the public? As I eluded to above wiki pages are not specifically reviewed by experts in the field. If Wiki pages are to be used as academic reference then they should under go stringent peer review. If this happened people would have more faith in the materials contained on each page.
What the difference between a blog and a Wiki? Blogs are simply online journals. They convey the writers thoughts and emotions. They are a great place to express one's creativity and post photos. Blogs are the property of the individual who writes them. A Wiki on the other hand is an editable online platform that can be updated by multiple users in real time. Wikis allow the reader (or Wiki members) to collaborate by creating, modifying and organizing a web page.
When is one more appropriate to use than the other? Wikis are appropriate for applications that involve multiple authors, and require that this work be edited by a group or team. Since things are continuously changing and growing rapidly, Wiki are ideal to keep up with what's current.
Should you allow your students to use wikis as valid sources for academic research? and Would you allow your students to submit a paper to you that cites a wiki as a source? On our Wiki (http://learningtogetherwithtechnology.wikispaces.com) there is an entire section dedicate to "Trusting Wiki's". The author is of the opinion that Wiki's have a great potential to be trusted resources and I agree that with proper monitoring they could be. On the other hand open source Wiki's, like Wikipedia can be modified by any of its users. The problem with that being that false information might make it on to any page. Wikipedia is monitored for quality on a regular basis but that's not to say that things don't slip through the cracks on occasion. In addition, wiki pages are not specifically reviewed by experts int he field and because of this fact Wikipedia is not a valid source for academic research. For this reason I would not allow for the use Wikipedia in research papers, though I do often say the it is a great place to start to gather basic information on a subject.
What policies could wikis enforce that could garner more confidence from the public? As I eluded to above wiki pages are not specifically reviewed by experts in the field. If Wiki pages are to be used as academic reference then they should under go stringent peer review. If this happened people would have more faith in the materials contained on each page.
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