Comments on: When is a Wiki a Tool, and When is it a Medium? Or Both?

By: How to do a Better Job of Project Collaboration Using a Wiki

How to do a Better Job of Project Collaboration Using a Wiki — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 18:48:06 +0000

[...] When is a Wiki a Tool, and When is it a Medium? Or Both? [...]

By: John Bourne

John Bourne — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 01:52:44 +0000

It was really great having Stewart come to class! I have to tell you I went right out and bought his book!

On the issue at hand, I was on a panel last week at NASULGC and the junior assistant professor next to me on a panel said she had to learn a whole new set of skills to work in a collaborative wiki environment (this had to do with collaborative authoring for extension services in state institutions). She mentioned how difficult it was for her. I’m thinking that there might well be something in the idea of teaching people how to work in a collaborative environment of this type…

By: pfctdayelise

pfctdayelise — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:52:27 +0000

Good post. However I think it is difficult for the “mediumness” of wiki not to affect its use as a tool.

It can be convenient even as a sole editor, to use a wiki as a tool to write an essay. You get lightweight markup and automatic revision control. But if there are other editors, I don’t see that it makes sense to use a wiki to write a strongly author-centred type of work such as (usually) an essay or an opinion piece.
If other editors refrain from substantially changing the text, then they are doing no more than one does through email or forums or blogs or other “comment only” mediums.
If they substantially change the text, then it has become a group-authored document or… I don’t know what it is.

By: Johan Jenefeldt

Johan Jenefeldt — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 10:41:13 +0000

To be honest, I don’t think todays teachers are able to teach students how to write blogs or other social media. Even if they understand the importance of doing so, I don’t think they know how to. Maybe the other way around – Students teaching the teachers?

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 07:48:18 +0000

I think that this point needs to be significantly amplified.

Wiki changes notions about participation and flips the action paradigm on end. With a wiki, your base level activity is action, you are assumed to edit anything you see fit. Action becomes naturally assumed, this means that you are constantly deciding not to edit, and that takes work too.

There is more in this essay proposal – What does it mean to think in wiki?