#16 Week 7 Wikis

I needed this refresher on Wikis. I had participated in using a group wiki before when we were writing information literacy rubrics. I found them very useful at the time. However, after that I forgot all about using them, and how useful they can be. This is an area that needs to be reexplored. We are in the midst of several curriculum revisions and creating benchmarks, and this tool would be very helpful. I am going to have to reacquaint myself with them so I can teach others on our curriculum teams to use them.
Some of the sample wikis provided were outstanding. I really liked the idea of the book reviews. I found several new titles I needed to put on my reading lists. I also liked the wiki created around job training. What a useful way to keep updated and current about all the needed training and expertise needed for a particular job.
A possible on-the-job use would be to create a wiki especially for your clerical staff between schools. This would be a great tool to keep up-to-date so you don't have to retrain your new personnal each time, and wonder what you forgot. I think I might suggest this to each school librarian and the one support person.
Students working in groups could really benefit from having a common wiki to share ideas and revisions with on projects they are involved in. It would help students to have one central location to keep their work. One problem here might be students that don't have computer access. Not having computer access will be a problem that needs to be addressed once schools start using more of these Web 2.0 options.
This was a great refresher for me. I have already begun to think of ways to use them with students, staff and within the actual library department.
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