Matthew+Denomme+-+Analysis+and+Reflection

I recall attending the first lab for CCT205 and hearing Professor Jones describe the wiki activity. I would be lying if I said what he described as Assignment #1 didn't sound a bit bizarre to me. An online site where students contribute writing collaboratively? It sounded like a recipe for chaos. I pictured online messageboards where arguments are "flame wars" are all too common and topics frequently get locked or deleted. I also envisioned a website crammed with information with no cohesive structure. Sure, I had heard of wikis and had had some experience consulting Wikipedia before, I thought that wikis were best left to professionals and special interest groups. I knew that, at the very least, maintaining a Wiki required an agreed notion of professionalism in terms of academic writing standards and "netiquette" among its members. What I failed to consider was our CCT 205 class constituted both a group of professionals-in-training with special interests in digital innovations. As such, I feel the Wikispace that evolved from our class’s online collaboration reflected the required academic values and standards previously mentioned to create and maintain an effective wiki.

My own personal contributions to the Wikispace were as follows. I created the article “Media Use and Its Impact on Social Influence”. I also added content to several pages including “Podcasting”, “Corporate Blogging Strategies”, and “Online Gaming”. When interacting within the space I focused on maintaining the structure and layout already established within the community. This included adding links to the main table of contents page. I also added to a number of articles a “Related Articles” section with the purpose of linking articles internally within the community. This was something I focused on because I feel internal linking promotes collaboration and helps direct users to information on similar areas of interest. I also made efforts to enrich the content posted by my peers by adding pictures, external links, and additional sources.

My experience on the Wikispace was an enjoyable one. I found myself browsing the articles frequently for the range of topics and information presented in one coherent space. I was also quite pleased to see people were reading and contributing to articles I had posted. This is something I had reservations about at first, as I was unsure how I would feel about other people editing my work. However, when I first encountered an edit to my work I found it quite fulfilling to know people were consulting my articles as I was theirs. I found other things pleasing as far as aesthetics and functionality of the site. The “revert” option under page history was a vital tool which allowed me to correct mistakes that may have proven disastrous otherwise. Also, I must give kudos to the person who added the “Table of Contents” box and anchors to each page. This was a nice touch that added a degree of functionality to each article.

One problem I did see with the CCT205 Wikispace dealt with plagiarism. It was quite apparent that people were copying articles directly from other sites, with a great majority coming directly from Wikipedia.org. This is inappropriate in an academic setting and reflects badly on the entire Wikispace. Also, some articles, while not exactly the same, were similar in style and structure to Wikipedia articles. While I am a supporter and frequent user of Wikipedia I feel that Wikis in general should be original in certain ways and a departure from the established Wikipedia style is needed.

Overall I enjoyed this assignment for various reasons. The freedom and responsibility given to students in making the site was nice. I also was quite impressed with how our Wikispace turned out. It is a professional and functional site both in content and form. I do feel however that an academic setting such as the one our class provided helps to produce good results and wiki use in the wrong setting could be counter-productive.