Wiki Findings

We have been asked to explore Wikis as a communication tool. As before we have been asked to search for two topics based on our profession and another based on our personal interest. First I went to www.wikia.com and www.wetpaint.com. Wetpaint was more pleasing to my eye, however I found wikia easier to search and find the topics I was looking for, so I signed up with wikia.

I have decided for this complete web quest assignment to keep my topics (professional & personal) the same. I think this will allow me to get a better idea if blogs or wikis best suit my needs. I started this search off with my personal interest, travel. Immediately I found World Wikia, http://world.wikia.com/wiki/World_Wikia. As with the travel blog I researched, this travel wikia sight is also categorized by continents. I went immediately to Asia, then searched Thailand, and ended up on Chang Mai. While looking over the Chang Mai wiki sight I noticed only one post was listed under the Hotels and Lodging section, so as our assignment asks us to do, I made an edit and added a guesthouse I stayed at in my travels in Chang Mai. The URL is http://world.wikia.com/wiki/Gap%27s_House:_Guest_House. I posted a brief description and the link to Gap's online. As a first time wiki editor, I had some minor problems. Well really, I didn't know what the heck I was doing. However today when I look at it, it looks just fine. I think they need to have better instructions or a tutorial to help out newbs like myself. Oh well, practice makes perfect.

I do plan on coming back to this wiki in the future. Mostly to see if anyone will have added to my edit, or deleted it. Also I will return and use World Wikia as a reference and search for more information for my next overseas travel.

In relation to my profession, I found a wiki that may be of interest to me in the future. This wiki is called Wikia - Science and Nature and is located at www.wikia.com/wiki/Science_and_Nature. I was happy to see that it not only had its main topic links (broad links) but also other links on more specific science or math topics. I began by checking the biology links on this wiki, but none of them were geared towards elementary education. So I tried the mathematics wikia which was nicely broken down into topics by educational level and concentration. Only after further exploration of this site, I decided these are not wikis I would post on or return too. It wasn't that the sights didn't look credible, but they just didn't have what I was looking for. The information was pertinent and correct, but not something I could easily use in a classroom.