Wikis in the Media Center

What’s a Wiki?

A wiki is a Web page that can be viewed by anyone with Internet access and modified by anyone who is a member.  When Wikipedia first came on the scene, I was warned against using it as a reliable source in my education classes and to avoid it at all costs.  I was terrified of Wikipedia!  If my professors were warning me so strongly against using it, then surely wikis were to be avoided at all costs.  I was extremely misinformed and have since learned the error of my ways.  According to Chad Boeninger (2007), “a wiki is a flexible tool that libraries may use to promote internal communication, provide a virtual space for group collaboration, or create dynamic content for the user population.”  Sounds like a fantastic tool right?  Lets explore wikis some more.

Internal Communication

Media specialists are the information experts of the school.  They are to lead professional development and communicate with all stakeholders regularly.  Wikis are a great way to accomplish this.  Media specialists can lead professional development without ever meeting face-to-face.  This allows 24/7 professional development opportunities.  Because wikis are Internet-based stakeholders can access the wiki from their computers, phones, or tablets at any time.  Topics within the wiki can easily be sorted and searched without having to look through tons of emails.  Everyone in education wants fewer emails! 

Collaboration

Collaboration is key in education.  Educase Learning Initiative (2005) states, “Wikis offer a powerful yet flexible collaborative communication tool for developing content-specific Web sites.”  It is difficult for all stakeholders to find time to meet and collaborate.  Wikis are the perfect solution of time management issues.  Unlike a blog where individuals can make comments on others ideas, wikis allow everyone in the group the ability to edit and modify the content as needed.  Once again the 24/7 access to the wiki allows for collaboration anytime.  

Create Dynamic Content

Wikis are ideal for use in the media center.  Media specialists are to work with teachers to create unique research opportunities based on content they are covering in class.  In other words, the media specialist is supposed to be teaching in each classroom along with the teacher regularly.  There is no way one person can accomplish this.  However, wikis allow the media specialist to be in every classroom every day.  Through the creation of a content-specific wiki, the media specialist can provide links to resources for both the teacher and the students.  It will be time consuming in the beginning, but once the wiki is created it is just a matter of updating and maintaining the content. 

Drawbacks to Wikis

As with most things, there are some bad that go along with the good.  Because users can edit and modify content on a wiki, there is always the risk for inappropriate content to be posted.  This can be time-consuming when you have to peruse the wiki often to track down inappropriate content.  However, this comes with teaching students to become responsible users and producers of information.  We have to provide them with the opportunities if we are to teach them.  Another drawback comes with feeling a sense of giving up control.  We use a wiki at our school and many have mentioned they do not like the idea of giving students so much control over something that can be viewed by everyone.  Once again, we have to educate our students to use the wiki responsibly and can set consequences for those who don’t.  According to Educase Learning Initiative (2005), “Another shortcoming of a wiki is that is represents the collective perspective of the groups that uses it – a wiki has a collective bias.”  The positives of using a wiki far outweigh these few negatives. 

Be Gentle

With all things technological, many educators must be sold.  Last year, our school purchased a subscription to PBWorks (http://pbworks.com/education) to use as a collaboration tool for teachers, administrators, and students.  It has been met with much negativity.  Many of our teachers feel it is just one more thing on their plates and cannot see the wiki’s value.  When we enter the media center, we cannot forget these things.  It would be easy to give up on something that so many seem to be against.  However, we must continue to find new ideas to share with students and teachers.  We live in a technological world that is going to keep changing.  Media specialists must stay optimistic and make all decisions based on the academic success of the school.  We need to find an inner-circle of teachers to win over who will spread the word of all the great things we can do for them.  This will help us gently work our way into working effectively with all stakeholders and demonstrate the necessity of our position. 

References

Boeninger, C.F.  (2007).  The wonderful world of wikis: Applications for libraries.  In Courtney, N. (ed.), Library 2.0 and beyond (25-33).  Westport: Libraries Unlimited.

Educase.  (2005).  “Seven things you should know about wikis.” Retrieved October 7, 2012 from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7004.pdf