Wiki Blogging Week #2

     Technology has always been an enigma to me, in part because I am a Baby Boomer and secondly because it is always changing.  Somehow after years of waiting for my children to go to college and returning myself I received "enlightenment" while attending Cleveland State University about the usefulness of various technologies in an educational setting. While studying Social Work and Non-Profit Administration in my undergrad, we had to make Power Point presentations, use animations, SIMS and Whiteboard. The Class had it's own Wiki education and encyclopedia site. I became a believer after attending web classes on Grant Writing at Cuyahoga Community College, The Grantmanship Center, and Cleveland State University.
      The usefulness of these technologies both in and out of the educational setting has become glaringly evident. The problem was I had a sort of built in immunbity or natural resistance to wanting to learn them. I wanted to refuse to give up my dinosaur typewriter and my pen and paper but the Universities were force feed these technology classes such as Introduction to Computers and thier Use. What was a Baby Boomer supposed to do? Afterwards I enrolled in Ashford Universities online Master's in Health Administration Program an began intensive Health Integrated Technology indoctrination, I graduated in April of this year. In May of this year, I  enrolled in the Teaching and Learning with Technologies graduate studies program at Ashford University.
      Which brings me up to date, this week we were learning about the use of Wikis as an educational tool. Because of my past experiences and current learning, I believe Wiki's have the power to transform not only how we learn but the speed of that learning.  THe word Wiki is derived from the Hawaiian word Wiki-Wiki, (Wiki for short), which is roughly translated "quick or fast". This is an apt name for the technology since it is so easy and quick to set them up. A perfect word word a web tool that moves with such speed. It is a web tool that anyone can add content, collaborate and group share. Wikis transcend time and space and you can limit Wikis for different functions. One caution though, Wikis are suceptible to Vandalism and intentional disruption the same way that Blogs are. However, with Wikis that Vandalism and intentional disruption can go a long time without being noticed. I learned that Wiki's can be expanded depending on whether or not you want to pay for upgraded suscription packages or use free packages. These packages offer features such as greater management capabilities, more storage capacity, or more security.