Warr,+Natalie

=__Analysis and reflections on use of Wikispaces__=

Reflections and Observations
Wikipedia is a unique, and enjoyable collaborative tool, where several individuals form a community to produce a free online encyclopedia. As a first time user, I am impressed with my overall experience. The program itself is extremely user friendly, easy to learn and use, and therefore very convenient. The whole trial and error process is eliminated, which saves first time users time, energy, and frustration. For example, the text editor serves only basic functions, which allows the process to be simple and straightforward. Linking and editing are two important features Wikipedia provides for its users. The ability to link several pages together is an important feature, especially when building a community is the main purpose behind the project. It is extremely easy to link two pages together, and is convenient when the two different pages share similar content. Editing is a unique feature found in the specialized website, Wikipedia. Open source and creating enable edits to be completed fast and easily. Each memeber's work within a Wikipedia environment can be edited. Users can check and edit grammatical spelling errors, or insert their own ideas and opinions on a relevant topic. This is a feature first time users may have a problem with, and must overcome. Sometimes I became very frustrated with the open editing feature. I did not agree with the edits other users had incorporated into my work. The history feature is important as well, and allows users to check a page's history, revert back to previous steps if need be, or indicate and display a users' actions.

Future Ideas: CCIT Students using Wikispaces
The Wikispaces project should be included within future CCIT programs. Knowing how to navigate, use, and create your own Wikispace environment is an important skill since wikis are increasingly being used for various educational and business purposes. Therefore, this project introduces students to a program, that will probably be reintroduced in the future. Wikispaces also introduces students to a collaborative working environment. When viewing the history of my own page alone, several edits and steps have been added by different independent users. Therefore this proves that a sense of community sharing, helping and learning was achieved.

Content and Community Maintenance: Individual Contributions
Feb. 14: -Create own page, The Democratic Divide: brief overview including key terms and issues

Feb. 21: -Create and connect my, Analysis and Reflection Page: rough layout including questions that must be answered -Post personal opinion concerning Test 1 Feedback

Feb. 23: -Break my page into sections with headings -Revise, Overview, and, General Response, sections -Bold key terms and important words found on Home page

Feb. 24: -Revise, Aspects of the Democratic Divide, section and, Alternative Responses to Democratic Divide, section -Create, Works Cited, section on my page

Feb. 26: -Add, Political use of the Internet by Alternative Institutions, section to my page -Incude an image at top of my page -Revise and break Analysis and Reflection page into sections

Feb. 27: -Edit and check spelling of my page -Compose Analysis and Reflection page -Add sections to both the, Global Divide, and, Social Divide, Cyber- optimists, Cyber- skeptics and Cyber- pessimists pages