Thing 10

Well, Wikis are really something aren't they? There is so much information out there to share and now we have some really good ways to do that. Wikis will give everyone a chance to show what they know. I like the fact that wikis are web based and that you don't need to know HTML to contribute to them. I was at the 23thingsonastick wiki and read everyone's "I was here" messages but wasn't able to edit and add my 2 cents worth... buggy and it is the end of the day so I gave up on it for now. I just couldn't make myself go in the sandbox. The Commoncraft video did a great job giving an overview (as always) and the other resources were helpful as well. This seems like a great option for planning meetings, conferences and inservices for busy people. Email gets less appealing all the time. Phone tag isn't fun but waiting for email isn't much better. I like the idea of a community wiki. Just think of the information that could be added! Wikis as an intranet to get information out to the staff would probably be a better option than having the secretary collect the information and send emails out every day and it would be a great way to collect current articles for staff development to share. I liked the Best Practices Wiki and the Book Lovers Wiki. I also looked at some of the school wikis to see what they contained. I have not decided what kind of wiki I would like to start but the peanut butter sandwich was good. I will give it a little more thought before I jump in. I will contribute to the Library Success Wiki as I have some things I feel I can share there. We had an interesting discussion at our school about whether or not students should be allowed to use information gathered from Wikipedia... most teachers thought they shouldn't. I pointed out that students need to be taught how to verify information from whatever source they use and they could get incorrect information off of any other web site as well. That debate will continue until people get used to sharing information this way.