Would Whacky Wikis Work?

I think that David Wiley may have created a monster. I could blame it on his encouragement. But I won’t. I’ll stand accountable for my own thoughts. And my thought processes. Though I can’t blame him for my thoughts, YOU can blame him for me feeling a little more willing to share them with you. After all he encouraged me never to lose my perspective about unintended and off-the-wall uses of technology.

Wiki’s …where to start. First I must admit that I didn’t feel “so inclined” to edit a Wikipedia article. I have a hard enough time editing my OWN writing, why would I want to take on the responsibility of someone (or somethousand) else’s? So, if I don’t HAVE to I won’t. At least today. But I will add it to my class "bucket list" - something I want to do and experience before the class is over. Actually I guess we all edited a wiki when we added our blogs to the syllabus – but the syllabus isn't really like Wikipedia (yet?). But I digress…Here are some thoughts I’ve had about Wikipedia and wikis.

First of all I found an interesting website that lists weird Wikipedia articles (most of which are not up to Wikipedia standards by the way). On it, I found this referenced Wikipedia article about “open cola". It was especially amusing to me on several different levels (and connections). While still in that sort of recursive-folding-in-on-itself flavor I hit a gold mine with this Wikipedia article about unusual Wikipedia articles! That’s interesting in and of itself – HOWEVER- talk about educational uses! If you couldn’t hook some hard-core, I-dare-you-to-TRY-to-teach-me-something students with this, I don’t know what would. Of course I must first warn you that there are some less-than-rated-for-general-audiences entries here. However you could look through those and find many harmless yet extremely interesting or entertaining possibilities to tempt the ‘non-interested’ student.

Next I wandered off on the tangent in my mind that told me that the history feature of wikis alone holds a wealth of possibilities. Couldn’t that be a natural deposit of “real” data that is free-for-the-asking, and just waiting to be mined for the social ‘sciences’? I think so!

I also really liked Lyndell’s blog where she mused about family uses of wikis – because I had already thought of using a wiki for my family. I thought it would be a great way to build a family history – but in a very easy and fun sort of way. First of all someone thinks of a memorable family event that took place in the past like : “The Christmas Mom Really Delivered” – which has reference to when my youngest brother was born. This person then writes about the event as THEY remembered it and how it affected their perspectives, day, life, etc. They let others in the family know it's there (if they don't have an RSS feed) and encourages them to add (or edit) in their 2 cents worth! I’ve noticed that when all of us get together to reminisce we all remember things a little differently. Sometimes we argue about the differences, sometimes we laugh, but I always wish we could record everyone’s version. A wiki could do that, and even the editing wars might be fun –if there were any- because you never really lose anything, and part of the charm and interest is to see the history anyway.

Lastly, I had a way-off-the-wall thought about: what would it be like if laws were created and changed by wiki??? I mean isn’t that BY the people? Well at least those with access to the internet… What if you tried THAT out as a simulation in a highschool government class – or even at girls’/boys’ state? Or try the same thing with class rules or – gasp- grading policies? Something to think about anyway…as if there were a dearth!