E-tivity 4: Let's wiki!

Now that we’ve become a bit familiar with the world of weblogs, let’s start exploring the world of wikis. A wiki is basically a virtual space (website) for collaborative writing, i.e. a place where we can “build” texts together. One of us makes an entry in the wiki, then the next person comes along and adds to, removes or in any other way edits what the first person has written, and so on. Our aim is to develop a wiki that talks about Student Life in Padova and that could be useful to prospective international students interested in studying in Padova. During today’s lesson we did a brainstorming activity (see previous blog posts for results) which we will develop in the wiki. If you have any difficulties or comments, please send a comment to this blog post.

A few references on wiki:

What’s a wiki: check it out at the biggest wiki on the web, wikipedia

Wikiquette: Editing someone else’s work can be a very productive exercise in collaboration and building knowledge, but it can also be a delicate procedure. The word “wikiquette” comes from wiki + the English word “etiquette”, i.e. how to behave appropriately. Check out wikipedia to read about how YOU should behave on wiki.

E-tivity 4

Purpose: To become familiar with our wiki and how it works. To develop the brainstorming activity started in class by starting to contribute to our course wiki.

Task: Log on to our wiki. On the left-hand side of the screen you should see a box that says “Recently changed”. In that box there is a list of pages and the word “more”. Click on “more” to see a list of all 9 editable pages. Choose one of the pages and click on that word. When you are in the page click on the word “edit” in the upper right-hand corner. Contribute to at least 2 wiki pages. As I said in class, for now sign your name.

I’ve included your work from the brainstorming activities in the pages, but feel free to delete what I’ve written. Tips: Keep it simple and informal!! You are writing for your peers in other countries, students like you whose first language is most likely NOT English. Be as objective as possible, but also make it friendly and personable. Do not use “I” and “we”, as you are giving information, not opinions. It’s often a good idea to write in Word or OpenOffice, then copy and paste your text into the wiki - that way you’ve got it spell checked and saved elsewhere :-)

Respond: Read the other students’ additions to the wiki pages. Add to or modify information in at least 2 of the pages other students have developed. Note: we are NOT commenting, we are editing. Please feel free to correct other students’ mistakes in English without commenting on them. If you are uncertain, put a comment in square brackets [] and I’ll let you know whether the comment was right or wrong. If you make additions, sign your name. If you make corrections, do not sign your name.

Timeline: Task - Wednesday, May 3 – Sunday, May 7
Respond – Monday, May 8 – Wednesday, May 10

N.B. I've uploaded a .pdf of this message onto our wiki if you want to download and print it!!!