Student 2.0 and the wiki
After reading this nice post over at lifehack.org, I’d like write up a couple thoughts about the use of the wiki for students.
Although it’s not very common to use laptops in class at my university, I know assume that it is common practice at most universities in the US.
So, even if you don’t get to actually type things into your wiki in loco, you can always get home and rewrite your notes in a more structured fashion.
Well, getting back to the points listed at lifehack.org:
Legibility: No more squinting over class notes taken while half-asleep, bored stiff, or hung over!
If you are a scribbler like myself, this is very important. Although I do enjoy the freedom of form and placement that a blank sheet of paper and pen gives me.
Durability: Wikis can be developed over the entire 4 (or 5, or 6, or…) years of a student’s education, allowing him or her to access notes taken years earlier if necessary.
This is a very powerful aspect of the wiki which will make it a very useful tool a couple years into your degree and even after you’ve concluded your schooling.
Searching: Wikis can be searched, in the page and across the entire collection of pages, allowing immediate access to their contents.
This too is a great aspect of keeping your notes on a wiki. We always forget something we previously learned and with a quick search, we’re back in business!
Links: Students can link to other pages within their wikis as well as to other sites on the Web, bringing new bodies of information together in one place.
Try make a link with pen and paper. Doesn’t work, does it? Yeah, doesn’t work for me either…
Links are sort of like when you stick some extra pages in your notebook, but they don’t weigh anything and don’t get lost… broken maybe, but not lost.
Collaboration: Several people can collaborate on the same wiki, allowing you to benefit from the strengths of your classmates.
Nothing like letting the smart kids of your class plump up your notes. Where more is definitely more.
Affordability: Wikis are still closely tied to the open-source movement, so many wiki programs and services are free.
Economics class taught me that nothing is really free, but I guess you get the picture.
These points are all great but I find them to be better for some areas of study than others. Well, although a wiki can handle basically anything you throw at it, inserting math equations and chemistry formulas can take its time and this is just not feasible in the class room. Maybe at home, but not in class and in real time.
You want to mention any other advantages or disadvantages that wikis can pose for students in the web2.0 era? Leave a comment, I’m listening :)
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Although it’s not very common to use laptops in class at my university, I know that it is common practice at most universities in the US.
Your impressions of american universities isn’t consistent with my experiences.
Well, I’ve only really seen two classes in session. And one of them was actually on one of MIT’s OpenCourseWare videos. Lots of folks typing away.
I’ve also seen alot of talk about techniques for taking notes in class on laptops. So I assumed it was common practice.
I’ll reproduce what I wrote on the lifehack site here. In science and math especially, wikis are just horrible ways to take notes.
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Wikis will never catch on as notebook replacements for a couple of reasons:
1) Mathematical symbols are a pain in the ass to represent in wikis. By the time you get the appropriate symbols and formatting in, you’re three equations behind the professor.
2) Assuming you don’t have a fancy-pants tablet PC, there’s no way to copy diagrams off of the board. I suppose you could use a digicam or something if you were really dedicated, but syncing all the pictures up with the appropriate pages of the wiki would be more hassle that it’s worth.
3) Formatting is a pain in the ass to do in a wiki. When I’m taking notes, and there’s a REALLY important point, I might write it larger, underline it three times, or put a big star next to it. How do I do that quickly in a wiki? How do I connect concepts with an arrow, or write an aside in the margins?
In my experience, wikis and other electronic note-taking tools have far too many disadvantages to make them viable alternatives to paper and a pencil. Sure, having a searchable archive of all my collegiate notes sounds great in principle, but ask students how often they really reference their notes from years ago, or even from the previous semester. (hint: it’s pretty close to never)
Wikis are great for doing some things, but note taking is not one of them