Pelton,Danielle

=Analysis and Reflection- Danielle Pelton=

Summary
I feel I really helped get this wiki off it's feet and layed the framework for others. I created most of my pages in the first couple weeks the wiki was up. I really wanted to help lay the foundations to help others start posting. This also give me a chance to write entries on things on which I had prior knowledge. This includes the Blog page, Wiki page , Web 2.0 page , Wikipedia page and RSS page.

Than I got swamped with work, and wasn't able to post for awhile but when I had time to come back I was happy to see how much the wiki had grown. I decided tto pick a few topics that really interested me and work on those pages. These include ARPARNET, SSL and RFID. I really enjoyed working on tht RFID page, I really enjoy security issues and this was something I knew very little about, dispite the fact that it's in use all around us. I really found interesting the human implant story, just because really something out of a sci fi novel or TV show. So I branched off of the RFID page and created a page about Amal Graafstra, who has 2 RFID implants.

I also did a lot of on the up keep side of the wiki. I spent a lot of time creating the Table of Contents and linking all the pages that had already been made too it. I also did some formating on others people pages, adding TOC's, line breaks , proper headings. I wanted to keep the wiki looking nice and organized so that others could find the infromation they wanted quickly and easily.

Reflections
I really enjoyed doing this project. It allows people to play to their strong points. I for example am not the greatest writer, but in the wiki format I have the entire class to help edit my work. I also really enjoyed watching the wiki grow from the one home page to the over 400 it has now. It also allows someone like me who doesn't have a lot of time to log on when theres time and change a few things than come back and change more later.

One problem I find is a lot of people are just posting work they've done for other classes, since there is so much overlap. This really doesn't allow me to learn anything new about a given topic. this being said I have learned a lot from reading other peoples entries and enjoyed seeing what other people think about certain topics.

For the Future
I think that in the future, it would be nice to create a few stub entries at the start for students to jump off from. It would allow the wiki to start a little faster and give students an example of the kind of topics you're looking for.

It is also somewhat hard to navagate all the pages. I feel this is partly due to people posting even the smallest topic on the main TOC, when really all it needs is a link from another wiki article. This might have been preventable with some guidelines set out from the start.

It also might be cool if WebCT could include a wiki like it does a message board, not to be used as a project but just for students to post infromation they feel may help others in the class. It's been really nice to be able to come on hear to clearify and learn more indepth infromation about issues and concepts talked about in the readings and in class.

Overall I think as a first try at a class wiki this has turned out really good. I know this whole thing is going to be a pain to mark but it was a fun project that I learned a lot from (like that RFID implants are insanely cheap and now I really want one, just so i can say I'm a cyborg) and I'm sure you'll learn a lot while marking all 400 pages.