Week 8- How to work with Wikis
Task 2 is done and dusted…It is time to start preparing for task 3.
After watching the short video on task 3 it gave me an idea
where to start. I have contacted all of my group members via email using gmail. Through the
email communications so far we have given a little bit of background
information on ourselves regarding what we do, why we study externally and so
on. From this information we have come to the conclusion that we are all
extremely busy people but are keen to work well together to complete this task.
I looked into communicating through ‘Skype’ which is a
social media website that can be used for commenting or videoing for task 3. I
have now realised that to have a group video session you need to pay a monthly
fee. I found this out when I signed into Skype and trialled having a group
discussion. A message popped up saying that you need ‘Premium Skype’ to have a
group video conversation. For now I will keep this in the back of my mind but
in the meantime I have contacted the group members to tell them this. I have
emailed them to get their feelings towards this and for them to research any
other social media sites that a free with the element of live steaming
videoing. As we are external students I think it is a good idea to have a social
media site that has the element of videoing to it when planning. This way we
can see each other and you get more of a feeling towards how people are
thinking and feeling. When we find a social media website that has videoing I
think that there always needs to be one group member taking notes of the
discussion. This is to ensure that we are all on the same page and have
written version of what was said, it also enables group members to look back on
the discussion or to even read it if they we unable to attend the group discussion. By taking these notes whilst the discussion is happening they can
simply read the conversation to catch up.
I have made a community on ‘Google Drive’ for my group and
I. This will be an area for general discussion in relation to task 3. Another
feature of the community is that it allows files to be uploaded in which I have
attached the group contract to. As this is a private community my group members
and myself are the only contributors. The final element that will work really
well is that it has an event calendar. This is where I plan to add group
discussion sessions with the date and time.
So far we have decided to leave a group discussion until
later next week. In the meantime we will be researching social media with
videoing, grasping what task 3 is all about and adding information to the group
contract. I feel confident with my group members, as we have all been very
efficient with our replies and input to the email discussions.
Today in the ‘online lecture’ via blackboard collaborate the topic of
‘Wikis’ was discussed. This was discussed as it is will be a main element on
task 3. The lecture was live streamed at 12.30pm and students were able to have
discussion whilst the lecture was running via a discussion board. Unfortunately
I wasn’t able to attend the live lecture but it was really interesting to watch
it and see how interactive it was. I think that it worked really well and it
enabled students to ask questions about the information given. Uncertainties were clarified straight away.
Another student towards the
end of the lecture asked if we would be able to use blackboard collaborate for task 3 and group
discussions. Jenni Parker the lecturer had stated that she will set this up for us to use. She mentioned that it is a payed website and that she will be able to make a group for all EDN113 students. This may mean that there will be other groups using it at the same time. I think
this is a great idea and I will bring it to my group discussion next week when everyone’s
had a chance to view the lecture. The only problem is that its not a video, it is a voice dictation. This will be a second option if we cannot find another
site that has a video element I think.
Jenni gave us the run down of what a ‘Wiki’ is. My understanding
of her detailed description was that it is like a website but it allows a group
of people to edit and or add information to the area. It also shows when
additions or edits were made, which is good for users to see how relevant the information
is. There were four Wikis that were introduced. These were:
- Google Sites
- Wikispaces
- PB Works (which is like the ‘tech toolbox’ on LMS)
- Zoho
These Wikis are all on par and provide the same elements. It
is just a matter of choosing one that your group and you feel is user friendly.
For now I will be looking at reviews and blogs on
the different Wikis mentioned above. I have quickly done a Google search and
found a great website. It goes through what a wiki is and gives some example of
wikis to use. Some are the same and some are not. I will be researching these
in more details. Thought I’d add this website for you to have a look at.
No comments:
Post a Comment