Lesson 18: blogs and wikis II

In this lesson, we'll look at what you've done with your blogs (Lesson 17 prep), check you have your privacy settings right and go over some advice about online publishing. Then we'll move on to discuss wikis.

1)  Feedback and discussion from last lesson and prep. As well as looking at the design and content of your blogs (and the privacy settings — as set out in the Google video, Google Privacy Tips: Blogger), we'll discuss online issues of responsible publishing, reputation, identity  ... This paragraph we used you in the last lesson needs to be fully understood:

In the digital realm, once something is posted online it has a persistence that is not like something that is said. It is also searchable and replicable and you cannot be sure who your audience is or will be. Once something is posted online, its effects are often magnified and can be mirrored out of context. All of this requires experience to understand. Remember: when you post, you have not only your own reputation to consider but also that of others and that of the school. Every member of the community has to take responsibility for his or her actions online.

2)  Wikis.  From Wikipedia (itself a wiki, of course):

A wiki is a software engine that allows users to create, edit, and link web pages easily. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites. They are being installed by businesses to provide affordable and effective Intranets and for Knowledge Management. Ward Cunningham, developer of the first wiki, WikiWikiWeb, originally described it as "the simplest online database that could possibly work". One of the best known wikis is Wikipedia.

You'll watch Wikis in Plain English, CommonCraft video (2007).

In class, we'll discuss how collaborative documents and weblogs relate to wikis. We'll also think about how we might use wikis:

• in business — 8 Ways to use a wiki, Atlassian (2007);
• in education — see David Weinberger's From Reading to Writing Textbooks.
  

Prep: create a new blog post with the title, 'What is a Wiki?'.  Using sources that have been mentioned or looked at in this lesson,as well as others you may find for yourselves, write about 300 words explaining the origin, nature and purposes of wikis.  Include appropriate screenshots.  If you experiment with setting up your own wiki with a friend or friends (using one of the sites listed at the end of the CommonCraft video), you must take care to keep your site private and to write responsibly.