Inner Dialogue: Wiki-What?

Sure, I've been to Wikipedia before. Who hasn't? In case you are one of the few people who has never happened across this site, it is a free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. From their Intro page, "Wikipedia is an encyclopedia written collaboratively by many of its readers. It uses a special type of website, called a wiki, that makes collaboration easy."

I never really took the time to poke around, check it out in depth, see what it was all about. That is, until today. An article in the Atlantic peaked my curiousity and caused me to look deeper into what was available on the web's largest shared knowledge building site. The Atlantic article was an interesting look at the genesis of the project and the people involved with its creation. I decided to take a little time to poke around and see what was there. What I found nearly threw me into a frenzy... I felt like a kid in a candy store... a starving man at a buffet... a butterfly in a field of flowers...

Ok. That last one was lame. But you get the point. I was in learning heaven. Anything I want to know about is right there. And anything I want to contribute to is available also. It's the ultimate experiment in distributed collaborative knowledge building. The ultimate community of practice. Newbies and knowbies working side by side to create something that is way larger than anything they could come up with by themselves.

What if something is inaccurate? Wikipedia is a perfect example of the open source adage "with many eyes, all bugs are shallow". Someone will see it and correct it. It's also a good lesson in knowing how to find, evaluate, and use information found online. Just because it's there, doesn't mean it's accurate, so it is good to know what to look for and how to determine what is worth using.

Wikipedia has way outgrown the original encyclopedia. I found the following nugget of truth on the quote wiki:

"The most important thing any teacher has to learn, not to be learned in any school of education I ever heard of, can be expressed in seven words: Learning is not the product of teaching. Learning is the product of the activity of learners."

I found textbooks in the making, available and ready to use. Wouldn't it be cool if I could have my computer science students make a contribution to the Algorithm book? Since their material would be published for all the world to see, they would be motivated to a higher standard of research and writing (ok, one can always hope!). Or they can be encouraged to read what is already there with a criticial eye toward accuracy and authenticity.

Of course, anyone that knows me knows that I go crazy over words. I think I could spend hours just clicking the Random entry link on the Wiktionary. Did you know that lacan is an Old English strong verb that means to move about or up and down, like rolling water or flames or to play? Or that zirconate is noun that refers to "any salt of zirconic acid". I bet you had no idea that quinquagenarian is a a Latin derivative noun that means "one who is between the age of 50 and 59, inclusive" or an adjective that indicates "being between the age of 50 and 59, inclusive". Thank goodness I'm not quite a quinquagenarian yet!

I could go on and on. I want to go on. Heck, I might even continue to go on despite the fact that I have some real work to do this morning. Wikipedia... what a cool place to spend some time :)

Inner Dialogue

conversations i have with myself...

Wiki-What?