Throughout the past few days I have set up a wiki in order to create a website on Susan Komen with a few other students in my class. Setting up the wiki was quite possibly the easiest thing I have done thus far for one main reason: the wiki website gave me a step by step tutorial in which I could interactively learn different tools and ways to build my website. This was amazing. It made it easy to do just about anything. Of course, I am sure that there are things that I am still unaware of, but the tutorial provided all the basics. Also, being able to actively click and follow the tutorial gave me a visual memory which has definitely helped. There were a couple of things that I feel I would have never figured out, or maybe I would have, but it would've taken me hours. So overall, I have had a great experience with wiki and I think I will learn to really love it in terms of the convenience of the site for working in groups.
I made the editing settings for group members only right now. I did this because, well, I don't want anyone else to be able to have a say in what goes on our group's page. Maybe later on it will get changed, but I think that is what's best for now.
Searching for information on Susan Komen has also been extremely easy. She is an icon to millions---the breast cancer billboard. Finding someone who doesn't know at least her name and the foundation she created is rare---specially since they have the Walk for the Cure, which pulls in millions of people as well. There are numerous Facebook pages for her, her Walk, her foundation, and I am beginning to think for "fake." There are so many that it leads me to believe that someone else has created a page just for her...kind of like a celebrity.
The wiki space has been time consuming. There is so much about her that it's hard to read through everything and make sure you're finding facts that are from a reliable source. Then, deciding where and how you want to put it on your page in a way that's readable to the viewer is a whole other ball game. I do enjoy adding pictures though, because I think it is a good way to break up all the words. I have always felt that wikipedia pages were rather boring to look at, so I am hoping that my groups page will be a little more exciting than the usual. However, I have found that it's hard to make it look "nice" because it's kind of like a word document. You can't add a picture and arrange in which ever way you please, there are guidelines. So this is something that I think will annoy me throughout the process.
But give me another week or so and then you can be the judge!
I have only begun to understand wiki-spaces, but I can tell you have a better grasp than I. Maybe it is because I am a guy, but I always assume I don't need directions and just jump into things. Your' approach sounds much more effective.
ReplyDeleteI guess I am not sure exactly what you mean about making "fakes" for this organization. But what I do know is, it's a shame when people take advantage as you said of wide spread charities and try to benefit from peoples good will. Another example would be the "Kony2012" scam and what a sham that was. Anyway, good luck with your' wiki-space, I will be sure to check it out.
I almost put "Invisible Children"/Kony2012 as one of the organizations for wikispaces research:) Great points, Rod!
DeleteHaha I will say that maybe I agree with your first statement. And what I meant by "fakes" was people creating Facebook profiles for Susan Komen. Such as me creating one for her and putting whatever random things I can find on the internet on my Facebook page. Meaning anything can be inaccurate or I could be liking and following a page that was not created by her or the breast cancer foundation.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you in that I would have been totally lost without the visual tutorial! It made evrything SO much easier, and made it so I wasn't second guessing myself. If only all site had a tutorial like that! Good luck with your wiki!
ReplyDeleteMandy, would you please share your wikispaces with me. You need to make me a member so I can see it. Right now, I have no idea what your team is doing and that does not help neither of us (in terms of grading) :)
ReplyDeleteI took a note about the "fake" and the amount of information that you need to go through.
Yes Bistra, I appologize for that. I thought I did ask you to be my member but I will be sure to try it again. Here is the URL to the wiki. I will try to add you as a member in a few hours or so when I get out of work! Everything on the wiki is things that were done last week.
DeleteURL: http://susankomen.wikispaces.com/