Wikiebooks! This is the new idea coming from the creator of Wikis, Jimmy Wales which is still in its infancy stages. It is his attempt at making curriculum textbooks available online and free from kindergarten up to college level. "The prupose is really contained in the word "freely licensed," which is to make available to anyone in the world, in any language, a curriuclum that they can copy, redistrubte and modify, for whatever prupose they may have, for free," Wales said. It sounds similar to the idea behind the International Children's Digital Library that I have been reading about this week for another class. This organization makes available children's books in different languages to anyone who signs up for free. While I think the idea of digital books are good and can be used for research purposes, I think people will always want to hold a book, so I don't think they will ever replace the "original book". This idea of making textbooks available for free will certainly make students happy, but I'm sure the publishers of this multi-million dollar business can't be very happy with this development! To read the entire article and more information on this concept go to: http://news.com.com/2102-1025_3-5884291.html?tag=st.util.print After reading it let me know your thoughts about this new idea.
Hi Everyone! This week I would like to look at the areas in which we are seeing wikis. In the following link:http://news.com.com/How+wikis+are+changing+our+view+of+the+world/2009-1025_3-5944453.html, you will find an article that deals with the impact of wikis after Hurricane Katrina struck. It further goes into detail about the areas in which we are seeing wikis make in-roads and the reasons for this phenomenon. Areas that are making use of this new form of communication involve, publishing, news, corporations, organizations, etc. One of the reasons behind the appeal of wikis is that you don't have to be a techi kind of person to use them. The article mentions that they see a lot of use from teachers, students, medical groups and families. I would like to to look more into the area of how teachers are using this new form of communication in a future blog. Corporations are using wikis to replace mass emails as a more effective way to communicate with their employees. What is it about wikis that make them so popular and well received? People can participate and be a part of what is being communicated, "This transparent history of every change is one of the most important features that distinguish wikis from other forms of instant updates and community, such as blogs, because wikis are seen as much more open-ended and participatory." One thought I had in regards to how a wiki could be used in a classroom setting was having a class work on a project together using a wiki where every student would have input according to the research they had done and being able to make self corrections with each others input. I think it would give them a stronger feeling of ownership and motivating them to do their best, as it would be a direct reflection of their work as a group and wanting to succeed.
Greetings to my first blog! I am creating this blog to fulfill a requirement for a class I am enrolled in for my Masters of Science Library Information Science program at Syracuse University. This will be an adveture for us all, as I have never even looked at a blog until now, let alone create one. For the period between September 11, 2006 thru October 22,2006 I will be discussing the subject of Wikis. This is also a new area for me so we will be learning and sharing together as we go along. Each week I will be posting links and a brief summary of these electronic resources for you to read. I welcom anyfeeback you may have concerning this area of study and hope to make this an excelent resource and learning experience for those of us in the library information field and connecting it to the field of technology.
