BLOG (Day 8) - Wikis for School Leaders (Chapter 3)

Why Use a Wiki?

People are so up-tight about safety, control, and caution as people approach Web 2.0 technology. So often, long-time technology users still feel a little uncomfortable with adding information themselves to the world wide web. The emerging technology of wiki's, however, greatly conflicts with this view of strict As the book states, a paradigm shift is occurring through name recognition and use in organizations because of its simple design and functions. Probably the best reason that the wiki technology is becoming increasingly popular is because it is easy to use. Also, for most of the wiki's available, it is cheap or free (which is always a good thing!).

Wiki technology really helps improve communication among almost any professional who usually does not see each other face-to-face on a daily basis. The rest of the chapter really discusses specific scenarios where wiki technology has improved communication, collaboration, and efficiency during a busy day. One aspect to this chapter which really made me laugh was it discussing "Google Wave." Through my laughter, I realized technology authors really cannot win with a book because technology advances so quickly that they cannot stick to traditional forms of communication (like a book!). Technology writers really need to blog or use a wiki themselves to get across their ideas. Quite an ironic thought about a book teaching people about using a wiki.

I have personally used and enjoyed wiki's before because it really does seem like the future of communication. I will have a class wiki in my classroom so parents can easily and quickly view what is going on in the classroom. This will also help parents keep up with technology at almost the same pace as their children. I know at The King's Academy, my 7th grade students would be able to handle a wiki much more than handling the use of e-mail. It helps the user be able to see exactly how it looks as soon as they post to the web.

These are just a few of my thoughts about the chapter from "Wikis for School Leaders."

Boom.