Wikis: Collaboration Made Easy.
by M. Spiegelman and R. Glass
Abstract (400 word maximum)
The growth of online learning has generated new interest in collaboration. As faculty from different disciplines and different campuses work together to develop new curricula, the ability to collaborate quicky and effectively has become essential. Until recently, the process among scholars has been crude at best. Passing of text files, email attachments, and word processor files that track changes offers rudimentary document management, but lack realtime authentication. Web pages require knowledge of coding and tags.
Wikis, which appear as web pages, are dynamic and reside on a server but are written without any knowledge of HTML. The application supports multiple authors and lets them easily track who has made a change, what has been changed, and how the change compares with the earlier work. Reversion to a prior version is as simple as the click of a button.
This talk explores how the presenters created a wiki site on PBWiki.com for academic endeavors. Acting as both a collaboration space and digital repository, the wiki allowed the authors to efficiently develop curricula, collaborate on course material for traditional and/or WebCT courses, coauthor presentations for conferences, and generate papers for peer-reviewed journals. The presenters will exhibit their work and demonstrate PBWiki.com in action. They will discuss the initial learning curve, best practices for success and how the wiki increased their productivity. Wiki terminology, issues of security and privacy along with a comparative overview of other free wiki sites will be addressed. Handouts with configuring instructions for a PBWiki will be distributed.
Blurb (50 word maximum)
Digital collaboration has never been easier. Using PBwiki this case study demonstrates the increased efficiency and productivity a wiki can provide for faculty development, curriculum design, and digital archiving. This social network allows for instant feedback and editing without the restrictions of traditional tools.
Conference themes most applicable
6. Social Networking, Collaboration, and Sharing
During the past few years there has been a surge in interest in internet programs that fall under the general category of social networking. The most obvious social applications are those used by our students, such as FaceBook, MySpace, Flickr, and Friendster. Other examples that seem to fall under the general category of social networking software would be blogs, plogs (project logs), vlogs (video logs), Wikipedia, wiki textbooks, RSS feeds, social tagging, podcasts, and E-Portfolios. Despite the popularity of these programs, there has been relatively little discussion of how they might be used individually for education, and even less about how they might be integrated to produce a new type of learning space. The goal of this track is to explore the educational affordances and constraints of these social approaches.
* Digital Repositories
* MySpace, Facebook
* E-Portfolios
* Blogging, Wikis, etc.
* Learning Space Design with Technology
4. Exploring and Implementing Emerging Technologies
Emerging technologies play an important role in providing new tools for empowering learners. Topics expected in this track include:
* New Tools and Methods for Managing Information
Information overload is a consequence of living in a digital world and it is a persistent and ubiquitous problem. What are the strategies and tools we can use to organize and make sense of a digital morass?
* Web 2.0
Web 2.0 promises to change the web from a collection of static information pages to a full-fledged application environment. How do these tools create efficiencies and enhance our productivity? How can we use them to design and develop new learning activities for our students?
* Mobile-education
Mobile education is an education without walls. It presumes the peripatetic student who is not necessarily classroom or even institutionally bound. What tools do we use to meet the needs of an increasingly mobile population? What ramifications does this mobility have on our conceptions of education and the institutions that deliver it?
* Libraries
Libraries have always been the bedrock of the academy where learning and books were synonymous. The digital world has challenged the figurative and literal place of libraries within institutions of higher learning. How are libraries reinventing and redefining themselves to meet this challenge?
* Learning Commons
Digital technologies allow us to connect, share and collaborate in ways that were previously only theoretically possible. What are the examples of learning commons in development? How do they affect our notions of how students learn and how teachers and institutions can best serve those learning processes?
* Simulations and Gaming
Game theory is all the rage. Heuristic or trial-and-error learning that goes on in game play defines the habits of today’s students. How are we adapting our teaching to our students’ proficiencies.
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