Day1- Views related to Wiki
What are your concerns about the quality of educational resources?
After reading the article on the research that has been done on Wikipedia I am confident that the quality of the educational resources will be high. I didn't know that a person can subscribe to a page and can get an email when changes are made, so can undo something if its crap or vandalism. And as every version of a page is saved that is even better than saving on your home pc, the number of times I've lost stuff!
At the moment, my concerns about quality would be in regard to pages I've never visited or subscribed to and students are using them as resources and they happen to be crap. Students (myself included) are still learning to think critically and to evaluate resources, so harder to identify when a resource is off base.
What are your concerns when they are developed using an open authoring approach?
As above, that some resources may be crap and until others who can recognise this visit and edit, if they are not edited over themselves, well, there is crap out there that students are accessing and using.
How can an open authoring approach lead to / or contribute to the development of quality learning materials?
It's so organic, true science~ knowledge building on knowledge. The collaboration of people with different points of view on a topic coupled with their life experiences and skills re-presneting materials in different ways, my mind is exploding with the excitement of how a piece of knowledge can grow and become so much more than the seed it was when first uploaded. As the Cape document stated, information becomes a living idea. And tut stating that knowledge grows with reuse.
In your opinion, should course development for education use closed or open authoring approaches?
I love the concept of open authoring to provide free access to education. However, for those of us not affiliated with an institution, who create our own programs to bring income into the home, how do we make an income if we offer it all for free? Already some of us provide services at minimal fees to students of particular life circumstances, to be completely free...how do I pay rent, internet, food~ let alone get a haircut or go to a movie...?
What are the advantages and disadvantages? Advantages Collaborative learning Integrated exchange between students and teachers More access to education by those in developing nations "improved learning opportunities" an enhanced society because we are all able to access education on an equal footing
Disadvantages Poor quality content Constant upkeep of added poor content Income for those not affiliated with an institution
From your perspective (identify your role / interest), what mechanisms can be adopted to assure quality of educational content development? o in general o in Wiki environments I am an online tutor:mentor, I can critically evaluate and make modifications to pages that I subscribe to. I can actively encourage other teachers to update their materials and to consider providing open source materials. Both in wiki environments and in physical classrooms.
