Blog #3

Before reading the Martin and Dusenberry piece on wiki's, the only thing I knew about them was how you could edit them anytime you wanted, and write whatever you wanted. I never thought of it being used in the classroom the way Martin and Dusenberry did. Everything else I learned in this article was new to me. One thing that surprised me was that "Wiki is Hawaiian for "quick" or "informal"". I was glad to see that wiki's are monitored so any inappropriate or hurtful information will not be posted. That makes me feel better but it still bothers me how misleading or incorrect information can be posted. Eventhough you can edit the incorrect information, it still may not be good enough if someone comes along and reads it expecting all the information to be correct. The entire article helped me understand wiki's better and I'm glad I had the chance to read it before we start our wiki project in this class. I think building a wiki can be a productive addition to the classroom and some of its advantages are "creating an equality of authorship and collaboration" as well as "inspiring people to be creative and create a community". The more I read about blogs and wiki's, the more I begin to think they are all the same as facebook. They all create a community that is appealing to each and every person. I see how interactive people are in their blogs and wiki's, and I see similarites in how I was with myspace and facebook. I loved myspace because it was web page that I could design and make all mine. I loved having a background that was appealing to only me and having my favorite song play when someone viewed my page. It was fun to read about other people and see your friends while looking at things that interested you on other peoples facebooks, and myspaces. Some disadvantages to wiki's I would see as "No one's thoughts and entries stay untouched by others". I agree with the students who say this bugged them about wiki's. I would hate making an entry on a wiki just to see it changed the next day.