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.

Web 2 Pros and Cons

Web 2 applications are useful for two-way communications and is heavily based upon interaction, collaboration and networking. With this comes a variety of advantages and disadvantages for users, depending on the need and use of web 2.

You can use web 2 applications for the following:

• For Social Networking purposes such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube
• For content writing and submission
• To post blogs
• To post comments and make reviews
• Search for information that is continuously being updated
•  Share personal work such as presentations
•  Online gaming

From these examples it is evident that web 2 is highly interactive and can be a great way to share information. However, despite all the positive advantages of Web 2 there are also disadvantages.

Advantages

• Using social networking sites can improve marketing strategies through adverts on topics that will appeal to each user. Through their recent search activity and the use of cookies, adverts can be personally adjusted to suit each different user.
• Having the equality to post individual views and comments allows users the freedom to express interest and engage with others of similar interests to them.
• Social networks increase social interaction and contacts, which can lead to promoting businesses, products and services.
• Customers can now leave reviews of products, which acts as a guide for new customers to see the quality and usefulness of a product before buying.

Disadvantages

• While having information being updated regularly on web 2 applications, this can also lead to information overload, which can create confusion for readers, and the content can be questioned on the grounds of reliability.
• Freedom to post views and comments on particular products can cause competition and lead to opponents to post negative reviews about other companies, which defeats the equality component of a web 2 application.

When it comes to using a web 2 application for educational purposes it can be debateable due to many advantages and disadvantages. I found this table here, and it highlights how web 2 can be a great tool for education but also discusses the disadvantages of why it may be unreliable.

What is Web 2?

Following discussions in University I decided to research Web 2, what it is, why it is needed and how it works. I've summarised the information I discovered about Web 2 below. 

Web 2 is a term used for a new generation of websites that allow the collaboration and sharing of information online that were not possible in the past. Previously, most websites used static HTML pages. HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language which is a standard industry system used to tag text files in order to achieve effects and hyperlinks effects on web pages. Web 2 meant sites were able to become dynamic and highly interactive. These new Web 2 sites were able to retrieve information from a database and, by using a programming language, they could build pages upon this.

Techniques used in the programming allows for the highly interactive aspect of web 2. This makes it possible for web browsers to connect to the web server and download small amounts of information in the background. Thereby an entire page will no longer be needed to reload each time a change is made. This creates a more responsive website and gives the user a much more enjoyable, interactive experience.

Animation

As part of a group of 3 we created a simple animation using a website called moovly. The website was sometimes difficult to use to manipulate the animation to be completed exactly how we liked it. However animations can be a great tool for education as children can use simplistic animation creators for a more interactive method of learning. Here is our group animation:

A Day In University

During my lecture at university, we were given guidelines to create a video that reflects a day in university. With these guidelines we could create a video using a variety of multimedia and interpret the task how we best felt reflected our day at university. As a group we decided to base our video around the daily routine such as arriving at university, socialising with our friends on the campus, attending a lecture and so on. This video highlights our life at university.

Maisie Jane

15/10/14