Sunday, 16 March 2014

Week 8 Post

Wikis allow for ease of use and if used properly can be a great source of information.  A great feature of wikis is the version creation.  I really like the fact that when someone goes and edits a document, a new version is created and you can go back if need be.  Just as common craft explains in their video a wiki allows for collaboration among groups.  All someone has to do is create their wiki site and then begin writing their document.  Those with the link can then go online and edit the site.  Wikis seem very similar to Google Docs as it offers a space for information to shared and edited all in real time.  However I think for school group work I like Google Docs better as it provides the opportunity to have everyone online working on a single document all at once.  Therefore you can edit a paper together and see who is changing what.  Google Docs also supports programs such as Word and Excel which make it much easier when using that for collaborating. 


This week we also learned more about becoming a digital citizen and the rights and responsibilities of living in a digital society.  I feel the most essential parts to our rights and responsibilities are cyberbullying, reporting illegal forms of downloading and ethical use of other’s ideas.  Bullying is a form of abuse that is sometimes hard to detect in victims.  Being able to be behind a computer screen and make fun of others makes it that much easier for bullies to do damage to the victims.  That is why I considered cyberbullying essential under rights and responsibilities.  Illegally downloading or pirating information or copyrighted material is a growing concern for governments and many industries.  It is constantly being reviewed in courts and is an ongoing topic of discussion.  My final point goes to the ethical use of other’s ideas.  It is a student’s responsibility to understand when an idea is not their own and to give the credit to the original owner by citing.  The author of the idea has ownership over what they wrote and need to be recognized for that.

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