Motivation for wiki use
This resource aims to promote student motivation in learning to use a wiki. The focus is on students in higher education where the prospect of landing a good job rears as a challenge that must be prepared for immediately. The resources attached should make the instructor's role more straight-forward by turning students' attention to the growing use of wikis in the workplace, and not just at the higher managerial level. If students are shown authentic materials relating to the use of the wiki in business they become more enthusiastic about becoming adept in the use of this platform for collaborative projects. Here is one example:
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2007/tc20070312_476504.htm
A discussion of the uses of a corporate wiki can be found at this wiki:
http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?CorporateWikis
The next article that students could abstract says:"By 2009, at least 50 per cent of organizations will use wikis as important work collaboration tools". The question for students is, "Are you ready to take a position in an organization that expects you to be able to immediately embark upon a project that involves the use of a wiki?"
Then there are useful videos, such as these:
Best Buy: The following video is noisy but does provide some insight. Review what students picked up from the video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_jhLGxH-m4&feature=related
Small business use - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1P0896B_LU&feature=related
Resources on teaching with wikis :
http://www.utexas.edu/academic/diia/wiki/teaching_wiki.php
Video background for teachers - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul9YM7QZZis&feature=related and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1-8OOrBi0o&feature=related
Possible First Task:
A collaborative survey of information on the web (with links to sites and videos) relating to company/corporate/organization use of wikis. Are they being used? If so, why? What do experts or companies say about wiki use? Describe what you find and give your team’s assessment of whether wikis can be useful to a company or any organization.
See these examples from Google search – “company wiki” – done within 30 minutes. A different set of search matches comes up with “corporate wiki”. (Remind students to do an internal search on a site if that is possible).
http://www.ikiw.org/2008/01/08/7-effective-wiki-uses-and-the-companies-that-benefit-from-them/
http://www.sernacompany.org/
http://beo-businessenglishonline.wikispaces.com/
http://www.webcraftdaily.com/tech/good-advice-set-up-a-private-company-wiki/
http://elib.suub.uni-bremen.de/ip/docs/00010611.pdf
http://www.cio.com/article/189150/How_to_Build_Your_Own_Wikipedia
http://www.cio.com/article/380613/The_Many_Uses_of_Enterprise_Wikis
http://www.buzzmaven.com/internet-marketing-articles/wikis-for-business-teams
and many more!!!
