Week Five: Wiki, Wiki

When I read in this week's assignments that we were going to be creating a wiki, I'll admit, I freaked out just a bit. (What in the world am I going to "wiki" about??) I decided to create a wiki devoted to great recipes. I have a house of picky eaters and am always looking for new recipes to try on them in order to broaden our regular dinner menu, so a wiki of recipes would be a quick place to look for a new dish without having to search too far. I have already included a few of my own recipes...the categories include: appetizers, main dishes, side dishes, desserts, breakfast dishes, and stuff for kids. Stuff for kids is meant to be a resource of cookable craft ideas (such as play dough or scratch and sniff paint) and/or kid-friendly recipes for little chefs to try out. I hope that others will find this wiki and add to it. I can't wait to see what will be added so I can cook something new and delicious for my family.

I really like the idea of wikis--now that I am not as intimidated by them☺. My mother's side of the family is very big into tracing our genealogy, so setting up a wiki where family members could edit and add any information they find about our ancestors would be great. The biggest pitfall I can see about using a wiki is the fact that just about anyone can edit the content of a wiki. The potential for mischief and misinformation is very present. By setting up a wiki to only be edited by those who are invited to the wiki (as in the genealogy wiki idea), the possibility of unwanted activity is lessened quite a bit. I think in regards to our "digital native" students and children, wikis would be a great way to get them engaged in learning. Through this class, I have found our wiki to be quite helpful in sharing thoughts and ideas with my classmates. In past classes where group work was required, a wiki would have made collaborative work much easier to facilitate since we all lived in different cities. So...using wikis in the classroom, whether it is an elementary, middle, or high school classroom, could be a great asset.

When I explored the eLearning Tools Wiki, I found a few things that I might like to investigate further. I wish I had known about this resource when I was trying to come up with an idea for creating a concept map because there is some good information about that very thing on this wiki. Also, now that I have this blog, I would also like to learn more about "vlogging"--blogging with videos included in the blogs. Maybe I'll turn my Blogging in Baby Steps class blog into a family blog about my daughter and all her antics. I might not, but if I do, the ability to include video of my kiddo singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" would be a HUGE hit with the family!