Wordnik

I believe wordnik.com can be used in an educational context, enabling users to discover the meaning of words and phrases of their choice. Additionally a list of blogs will be provided so users can put the word of their choice into context. I did an example of this as I searched tree.

Wordnik supplied a variety of definitions together with a list of blog posts relating to tree. Below the definitions the website provided Etymologies which indicates the origin of the selected word. The lists of blogs have been taken from major news articles in America such as Wall street journal and USA today. These provide reliable and useful examples and are ranked in usefulness to the reader. Overall I believe that this web 2 applications can be used in an educational context as it provides more useful information than a thesaurus or dictionary.You can use the related blog list to help research in relation to a particular word that has been searched. Additionally, along the top of the right hand side every word search provides a list like this:

If the user clicks on relate, an endless list of synonyms to hyponyms, rhyming words etc. can be provided. I believe that this aspect helps in an educational context as synonyms and hyponyms can expand the users vocabulary range and support a more advanced progression in education.

Overall the website was easy to navigate and use. By clicking on ‘About Wordnik’ at the bottom of the page the user can understand the use of synonyms, hyponyms and further information provided in order to ensure the context of the word is used correctly.

Blog vs Wiki

A blog shares a variety of different content, from editorial to multimedia. The blog entries are all in the form of posts. Users are able to respond to these posts by using individual comments. While posting and commenting is open to the general public, the ability to change a comment or post made by someone else is controlled by the blog publisher. Therefore, people who use blogs have the opportunity to express their individual opinions.

A wiki however, is a far more open structure which allows users and the general public to change what others have written. It is a matter of personal choice as to which best meets the individuals requirements.

I discovered this ven diagram online here which highlights the differences and similarities between and blog and a wiki.

Using a Wiki & What it is

A wiki is a web site that is developed collaboratively by a group of users which allows any user to add and edit its content. A user can create or edit the actual site contents without needing any special technical knowledge or tools. A wiki is continuously ‘under revision’ due to the process of constant updating of information.

Everyone with Internet access is familiar with a wiki, the most famous example is Wikipedia. While storing copious amounts of information it allows users to update, remove and edit the information that is stored on this website. This is the main reason Wikipedia is considered a controversial website for use in academic pieces of work. The website is constantly being updated by users and, as a result, the accuracy of the information is always called into question.

In university, as part of a group assignment, we used a wiki to research education and technology in different parts of the world from the past to the present. By researching individual topics and adding them to our class wiki page we were able to gain a lot of information and a better understanding of each area of technology and education in a short period of time.

This video explains perfectly how a wiki can be used between groups of friends planning to go on a camping trip. It highlights how information can be updated and changed fast.

After using a web 2 application, such as wiki, I have complied a list of pros and cons that I faced when using the class wiki. For example the advantages include:

•  Interactive: having the ability to post content in the wiki that is related to the subject while users being in a variety of different places can be seen as a pro. A community of users just like our class can create a wiki to communicate and share information with people from all over the world.
•  It is not based upon one user providing information; everyone has the equality to post content in a wiki.
• Content is being continuously updated; therefore there is a constant flow of information that is being provided.

However while using a wiki I also noticed a variety of disadvantages that were highlighted. These include:

•  Freedom to update content already published: users in a wiki can edit information that has previously been provided which can cause question of reliability. Wikipedia is a great example for this as highlighted above as anyone can edit information and provide untrue and false facts. Furthermore when designing the wiki I noticed that changes I made to the class wiki could be updated by someone else to suit the preferred style such as removing a picture I put in the wiki and changing it to something they preferred.
• Organisations nowadays block all forms of social media and a wiki or especially web 2 applications fits under the umbrella of a social media site.
• The internet today is filled with frauds and hackers, a wiki can attract plenty of these due to the freedom to comments and views and especially having the ability to update any information that has been posted on a wiki.