What I've Learned In My Second Week Of Classes.

You ever some times sit back in reflection and ask yourself, "How in the world have I made it this far?" This is the way I feel in the midst of second week of class. We are studying the use of collaborative software tools to be incorporated into our online course design.

After studying general concepts of using collaborative software tools in week one, we moved into week two exploring the merits of using wikis in education. Our text, Using Wikis for Online Collaboration: The Power of the Read-Write Web, by James and Margaret West, includes six chapters that we read, explaining the benefits and cautions for use necessary to begin the process of incorporating wikis into the curriculum.

West and West (2009) are very clear in their assertion that, "Today the Web facilitates a new age of participation that is close to Berners-Lee's original intent, inviting users to participate, co-create, edit, collaborate, rather than merely consume (Lamb, 2004). We have moved from a read-only Web (Web 1.0) to the read-write Web (Web 2.0),"

I discovered that wikis are an awesome learning tool to bring concepts and ideas into a online forum enabling learners advantages other types of software learning environments can not provide.

Reference

West, James, & West, Margaret, (2009), Using wikis for online collaboration: the power of the read-write web, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Inc Pub.