wikis

Patrick and I watched a web seminar today on Wikispaces Private Label. This is a pay service from Wikispaces targeted at business and education clients. Essentially we would get a web-based tool to manage a lot of users and a lot of wiki “spaces”, which are collaborative web documents shared by an enumerated list of users.

The product looked fine, but I feel like the demand for wiki has dried up on the IWU campus. Most people are just using Google Docs to collaborate. Am I wrong here? Do we still need a wiki solution that is more manageable than free ad-supported wiki accounts online?

A few people have contacted me lately about using wiki tools to collaborate with others on a project. We don’t have an “official” wiki at IWU so there is always a bit of confusion at the outset.

Many people have opted for Google Docs instead of wiki. This makes a lot of sense if your group is just collaborating on internal work. If you want to publish the work to the web later, wiki tools are a better fit.

What wiki is the right wiki? I don’t know. We have used Confluence (a commercial tool that costs money) and Wikispaces (basic wiki is free, extra features cost you). There is also a basic wiki built in to Moodle. I’ve used MediaWiki (the engine that powers Wikipedia) on my own server with great results. So I must be a wiki expert, right? Not even close. Here is an article naming some of the wiki farms on the web today.

So what tool is the right tool? There are a few factors that are important when stacking these tools and services up for comparison. First is access. There are two sorts of access for a wiki - read and write. Clearly your own people will need to both read and write if they are going to collaborate. Can the tool allow or disallow public reading, writing, or both? Can you use it to make this choice on a page-by-page basis?

I’d also look for a tool that permits downloading a backup copy of your wiki, at least in HTML form. That way the end product of your collaboration can be retained, even if the company hosting the service goes out of business.

Last but not least, find something that is easy to sign up for and easy to use. I have some concerns about the usability of the Moodle wiki. On my first visit I couldn’t figure out how to make a new page without looking it up. When comparing usability I’d stack any wiki up against Wikipedia. Everyone should know how to modify a Wikipedia entry by now - it is very easy - and if your wiki service makes it confusing you might shop elsewhere.

Much of my last few weeks has been spent in a renewed push to help people work on their campus websites. I also had to prepare a presentation for the upcoming Sungard Summit conference. 

I’ve also been spending time every week working on a revamped test Moodle system. This time the campus authentication system is in effect!

Yesterday Patrick and I tried out the integrated wiki tool and the chat tool. We also tried something called a “choice,” which is really just a poll. Another tool is called “survey” which you might think does the same thing as a “choice.” Not so - surveys are actually standard types and are not customizable at all. They are mostly variations of ATTLS (Attitudes Toward Thinking and Learning Survey) or COLLES (Constructivist On-Line Learning Environment Survey) survey instruments.

I’d also like to encourage everyone to subscribe to the other Office of IT blogs. Our staff has been doing a nice job of keeping some communication flowing, but we still need people to read them!

Fred’s blog - IT planning and operations (also a source for notes and updates on system problems and outages)

Network and Server Group blog - some great explanations of what goes on in the mysterious server room

Patrick’s blog - great tips and basic explanations of useful desktop-level skills

Choosing to use a technology tool in a class can lead one down a difficult road. One important key is to figure out what tool to use for the job at hand. So do you use discussion groups, a digital movie project, a wiki, or a blog? To analogize, I wouldn’t want to use a belt sander to grout my bathroom tile, so it would be nice to better understand the nature of these different tools.

So how does one decide what tool or is the best for a specific application or need?

 I’ve found a couple of helpful guides to better understand blogs and wikis in the context of teaching and active learning:

• University of Tennessee’s intro to Academic Blogging
• Writingwiki.org’s guide for Teachers New to Wikis

I’d like to share with you a few things that we are checking out in the Office of IT. These aren’t things we are committed to at this stage but if you have an opinion I’d like to hear it!

• Moodle, an open-source alternative to Blackboard or WebCT. Moodle provides a set of course tools that include wikis, online quizzes, and grade books.
• RSS Feed readers like Bloglines, Google Reader, and Mozilla Thunderbird. Check out the great video explaining the meaning of RSS.
• web meeting capability, using WebEx or Adobe Connect
• Confluence, a wiki-based tool for managing shared online workspaces.

An upcoming workshop requires a wiki for pre-workshop preparation. Since we don’t have a functional campus wiki engine we decided to use a free wiki service. These sites are referred to as Wiki Farms and there are a mind boggling variety of options that separate the major players. I chose Wiki Spaces for a start. They don’t use the same engine (MediaWiki) that is used by Wikipedia, but the Wiki Spaces engine is actually a bit easier. There is no need to learn a markup language since there is a toolbar with common tasks built in. Next I’ll see how collaboration works…I’ve invited other workshop facilitators to join in. I can already predict that we will have a little trouble organizing the information but hopefully we can resolve that problem swiftly and efficiently.