Wikis III: WYSIWYG and more

Just two comments on wikis:

1. Last week I was introduced to wikispaces by Daf, and so I saw a wiki that accepts WYSIWYG code with my own eyes  . That encouraged me to try a wiki, and I’ve started two spaces: “tips and hints for my computer” and “what people say about me“… I’m still not sure of what to think of them, and have had trouble inserting tables, but it’s a start… 

I’ve decided to make them public and see what happens… Exploring seems the key to learning, particularly online!

2. The IT Guy at techlearning.com today recommends MediaWiki as “open source wiki software … for school districts to install and use”… I must look into this one day!

One final note: looking at the preview, I can see the second point on my list looks like a speech bubble with a grey background… It’d be lovely to have a clue about how  I did such a thing!    

Wikis II: 2 versions of Wikipedia?

Reading the supplement on technology published by “Clarín” newspaper last Jan 04, I learn there’ll soon be two versions of Wikipedia (http://wikipedia.org): one where pages can be semi-protected and new contributions will be moderated by the page administrators, and a new one, which will be “static”, and whose contents will only be updated by the site administrators. It seems I’m not alone in feeling threatened as a writer when using a wiki!

Originally posted at my LiveJournal (now closed) on Jan 10, 2006

Writing with Wikis

For nearly a month now I’ve been trying wikis with the co-moderators to-be for BAW 2006. I’ve tried my hand at pbwiki and not felt comfortable in that environment at all…   Daf is definitely enthusiastic about them, but many of the others share my feelings. Here’s what I’m not happy about:

1) At wikis, everybody can do everything, without even informing the author of a text if they’ll have it deleted. Besides, people can make contributions and then readers will never distinguish who’s said what (unless they remember to “sign” their additions, or readers   take the trouble to click on “Edit this page”). I find this confusing as a reader, and rather “threatening” as a writer.

2) What’s worse, there’s no easy way to keep track of changes made (again, unless you take the trouble to click on “Edit this page”). If I’ve posted something, I’d need to go back regularly to check nobody if somebody has made changes to it. I’d like a wiki to notify me by email every time a change is made (as Webcollaborator would do, pity it was unstable; BTW, it notified comments, but not changes to the documents either!)

3) I hate dealing with the formatting conventions, what is known as “Wiki syntax”. Yet, at Wikipedia, I can read: “Some recent wiki engines … allow ”WYSIWYG” editing, usually by means of JavaScript or an ActiveX control that translates graphically entered formatting instructions such as “bold” and “italics” into the corresponding HTML tags.” I’d definitely like to try that!

Ironic: while objecting to wikis, I’m making use of one as a source of knowledge!!!  Guess that means I need to keep exploring this tool!

Gladys

Originally posted at my LiveJournal (now closed) on Dec 21, 2005

Barriers to technology integration

In IT IT Challenges in Higher Education , Cynthia Gautreau writes:

“A significant barrier to integration is not just the teachers’ technology competencies but the fact that many remain unaware of technology’s potential. (…)The faculty surveyed overwhelmingly desired to learn technology in order to meet the needs of their students.“

She’s discussing findings among faculty members of an American college. Yet, as she goes over the benefits of technology integration and the barriers to its effective achievement, I feel as if she was describing my own teaching context.. Seems we face the same challenges all over the world!

Originally posted at my LiveJournal blog (now closed) on Jan 9, 2006