BashirKhan

**__Analysis & Reflection__**
1. My first impression of the wiki space was one of rather skepticism. Of course due to the nature of the internet and its vast number of different users, I felt that placing such authority in the hands of the users to edit, alter or modify almost any information can prove to be problematic. However, after using the wiki over time, to my surprise I realized that the environment proved to be more useful with minimum abuse. I find that it’s a friendlier environment than other educational tools such as WebCT or CCNET in the sense that it allows a lot of control for the users to communicate to each other, and in addition it doesn’t follow a hierarchy of authority as much, since a lot of the information posted is by fellow students or peers.

I expect and more or less try to contribute as much information, but due to the specificity of individuals and what they try to communicate, it forces me to go in the direction of starting my own threads or pages rather than adding to others. Although, I do like the fact that that option is available to me where I can add my own opinion or facts to someone else’s idea. Nevertheless, I do expect to fully take advantage of the wiki to address any specific questions that I may have and use it as a study tool.

Although I haven’t used wiki in any previous courses, I am using it for two courses simultaneously in this semester. I do believe that it helps myself to better adapt to wiki and get familiar with it since its an integral part of both courses. However, it does become overwhelming to keep up to date and continuously make contributions to the wiki since it becomes the expectations become twice as much, and begins overlapping and creates some confusion and repetition. For example, for both courses, this very reflection needs to be done which touches on mainly the same points but I have to do this over for the other one!?!

I think the idea of contributing to the wiki is not very complex, although I do think that initially there is a little bit of hesitancy to start contributing and adjusting to this “collaborative learning environment”. But once you get over the hump and learn what it’s all about, and you familiarize yourself with the wiki, it becomes simple and easy. Then modifications and additions become almost natural as opposed to a ‘task’.

2. The postings that I choose to contribute or alter are usually the ones that I find interesting and I think I am capable of contributing quality information to. And for the making changes, I am very careful about changing people’s work that might alter or hinder the point they are trying to make. Also, when the author has written something, its organized in a specific way so that limits the degree to which the alteration can be made since changing them can mess up the structure. So the changes are mainly typos or an elaboration of the point following the original context.

I do check my own postings and noticed that people have made slight changes to the work. I haven’t had anyone do any major changes so I wouldn’t know exactly how it feels, but I do believe that it depends on the type of alteration. Because when I write a piece of work, I have a specific idea in my head that I try to communicate to the best of my ability. So when someone comes across and changes the work, two things can happen. One, they can pursue your idea from the perspective that was in your head and you can appreciate the edit, although this is rare. The second one, which is the more common one, is that they have a different take which is not exactly from the way you initially thought of it, so it can become slightly frustrating, but nothing overbearing.