Web 2.0 Learning Essay Example for Free

Web 2.0 Learning Essay The original wiki, The Portland Pattern Repository (Portland pattern repository, n. d) was created by Full Name Cunningham in 1995 (c2. com/cgi. wiki? WikiHistory – reference properly – if there is no author use the title of the page The definition of a wiki is a webpage or set of webpages that can be easily edited by anyone who is allowed access (Edersbach et al. ,2006 ). The overriding goal of a wiki is to become a shared repository of knowledge with the knowledge base growing over time (Godwin-Jones, 2003). Chawner and Lewis (2004) noted that a wiki is an example of â€Å"social software†, â€Å"a type of software that makes it easy for groups of people to work in a virtual environment†. However, Viegas , Wattenberg and Dave (2004) indicate that wikis are vulnerable to malicious edits or â€Å"vandalism,† which can be a problem at may levels. However, Cych (2006) argues that acts of vandalism and mistakes are rectified quite quickly by the self-moderation processes at work (a couple of sentences expanding on this issue is needed here – if I were you I’d try and refer to something which discusses the accuracy of wikipedia against the encyclopeadia britannica). As an alternative to the global editing of wiki’s, restricting access to registered users only is often used for professional, work group wikis. One of the great features of a wiki is its capacity to be able easily editable. A wiki has the capacity to be able to be edited collaboratively rather the information presented in wikis have the option to be edited or added utilizing a very rudimentary mark-up computer code that would use a internet explorer or browser. Broken down, one page within a wiki is referred by many as a wiki page as compared to the entire set of wiki pages is called a wiki when taken into consideration (Cunningham Leuf 2001). Thus, it can be generalized that a wiki is a collection of information where contributors can contribute collectively and users can access freely information. This has been proven as one of the most accessible or effective web 2. 0 applications in providing accessible and affordable information to students and researchers. One characteristic of a wiki that has made it so popular in sharing and communicating information to students is its ease of usability. Students need not have a degree in computer science or web applications but rather just the passion of sharing intuition and a little bit of patience in order to learn the scripts involved in the programming. They are free and without any need for registration so that users need not have the need to register or pay any amount (Aigrain 2003). It also offers real-time editing and creation so it provides the opportunity for students, researchers and faculty with much needed time as they acquire, research, and provide information within the educational institution. To summarize, unlike blogs, Wikis tend to be more structured and flexible,and, while blogs can be highly personal, wikis are intensely collaborative (Godwin-Jones, 2003). Wikipedia Wikipedia is full blown example of a Wiki. Wikipedia is the pet-project of Wikimedia Foundation which is a non-profit organization that aims to provide encyclopaedia-type information to internet users. Wikipedia has then turned out to become almost a household name, with more than 8,000,000 online articles that is accessible in the internet and is presented in more than 250 languages (it is noteworthy that almost 2,000,000 of those articles are made in English). These articles are peer-developed, rather they are developed and continually improved by researchers, users and experts of a particular field in order to provide the most accurate and up to date information on a given topic/subject (Hinchcliffe, 2006). Currently, Wikipedia holds just below 610 million words which are approximately 15 times more than what Encyclopaedia Britannica holds in these books (Godwin-Jones, 2003). Because of its nature of being able to be written collaboratively by practically anyone that has something to contribute in the page, its fame and usefulness as a resource for information has steadily increased even from the start of its creation. Currently Wikipedia is within the top ten websites around the world that is being visited daily by users worldwide (Chawner Lewis, 2004). The name â€Å"Wikipedia† that was developed by Wikimedia is a combination of two words – Wiki which points to an online collaborative effort in creating an article or text and Encyclopedia (Godwin-Jones, 2003). But fame is without its critics. Because of Wikipedia’s astronomical rise and open nature, other people critical about these aspects have begun to look closer on wikipedia’s accuracy, precision with respect to how it is able to present information and reliability for users and researchers alike. Wikipedia has been constantly hounded with comments pertaining to high vulnerability of being vandalized and used for spreading wrong information that can be used as reference. However, because of its huge support from users, contributors and sub-programs have begun to address these problems (Chawner Lewis, 2004). In addition to this, there were studies conducted that focused on these two aspects of wikipedia and they showed that in general, Wikipedia’s instances of vandalism is rather short-lived and is as accurate as any other encyclopaedia, online or hard bound. Because of this it has won such prestigious awards as the Time Person of the year that focused on how Web 2. 0 technologies has furthered and practically galvanized online collaboration and collective effort throughout the world in order to produce scholarly articles for free.