Another month has gone by, and soon the semester will be over! But we still have a lot more learning to do. This week we learned about wiki's. A wiki is an internet database that allows anyone to view, edit, share, and delete information. One of the most well-known wikis is Wikipedia. I personally love using Wikipedia to help me jump start a research paper because you can access a lot of information on the website. However, Wikipedia does have its downfalls, which I will discuss later on.
We have already been introduced to a wiki on our ADED 1P32 Sakai page when we posted our Twitter handles, our blog URL, and signed up for our research topic! Google Docs and blogs can also be considered a Wiki because it allows anyone with proper access to view and edit the information. Last week we worked with others in a Google Doc to create a presentation where my group members had the power to edit and add information to the project. Most of the tools we have been introduced to such as our blogs, Evernote, and Google Docs have privacy settings that do not allow others to edit the information. However, most of them allow viewers to leave comments.
I mentioned before that Wikipedia has its downfalls, and the main one is that the information is not reliable. Because Wikipedia is a Wiki, anyone has the power to change the information on the database; therefore, the data may be incorrect. I do like using Wikipedia to start a research project because it provides a brief summary of the topic before starting in-depth research. However, an effective way to use a wikis is to compare the information on a wiki database to another valid source (ie. a journal article, or peer reviewed article). You can also validate the information presented on a wiki by reviewing the resources referenced in the wiki. How 'The Daily Show with Jon Stewart' conquered the social web is an article that appeared on my Feedly this week that related to this week's topic of wikis. In the article it mentioned that Jon Stewart, a television host, told his viewers to change the facts on Wikipedia about elephants. This article further demonstrates that you cannot solely rely on Wikipedia as a valid source. A Wiki allows anyone (in this case, anyone that tuned into his show that day) to change the information on the wiki. Therefore, it is important to learn how to validate web sources.
Until next week,
Heidi
Hi Heidi I do agree with your statement about wiki being unreliable, its unfair how anyone can modify the website. I belive it would be fairer to go through some kind of moderation system where information delivered is reviewed by a moderator.
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