Wacky Wikis

Thomas Mackey of Empire State's used them for a couple of years. Transparency is they key issue. Who gets to say what to whom, and who decides? Faculty are very worried about giving credit where credit is due, but it’s like that in any group project.

He's used a variety of platforms (and we may want to check out PBWikis. It's free). It was used for reader response, reflection of service learning, feedback on drafts, team presentations, schedules, collages, wordles, web-based multi-media, Second Life journals and presentations, student-produced podcasts, YouTube videos, links, plus they could make their wiki pretty as they wanted. Students took a critical stance, though. It was hard! They wouldn't edit each others' work. They put their names on things, because they had a hard time letting go of ownership. It was hard to write for collaboration. But that’s not so strange. When he uses Buzzword for faculty collaboration, the faculty put their names on things, too. But since content was student-generated, it moved them from seeking answers just on Google, to taking responsibility for learning and sharing what they learned.

Could this be a new model for Peer Advisors? Should they be doing an AUPedia?

Photo by Lightmash.