Playing with Tiddlywikis, pedagogically speaking.

1
Playing with Tiddlywikis, pedagogically
speaking.
Bob Sharpe, PhD Department of Geography and
Environmental Studies Wilfrid Laurier
University May 16, 2007
2
What is a wiki?

• A wiki is a website that allows visitors to add,
  remove, and edit content
• Wikis allow for organizing information on Web
  sites, and linking among any number of pages.
• This ease of interaction and operation makes a
  wiki an effective tool for mass collaborative
  authoring.
• Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, is one of the
  best known wikis.
• Open-source wikis have been criticized for their
  reliability certain individuals may maliciously
  introduce false or misleading content.
  Proponents rely on their community of users who
  can catch malicious content and correct it.

3
What is a TiddlyWiki?

• A TiddlyWiki is like a wiki but controlled on the
  client side rather than server side.
• It is a single self-contained html file that
  includes JavaScript code which can be downloaded
  and operated on most any computer
• http//www.tiddlywiki.com/
• Users can make new entries, called Tiddlers, in
  their local copy of the TiddlyWiki file and save
  it for future reference. Existing Tiddlers can
  also be modified or deleted in the same way.

4

• TiddlyWiki is published under a open source
  license, which makes it freely available.
• It is experimental, and many people have used the
  original HTML file to create TiddlyWiki
  Adaptations.
• Designed to be used as a personal notebook.
• A feature that sets TiddlyWiki apart from a
  standard wiki implementation is its content
  presentation.
• A TiddlyWiki is like a blog because it's divided
  up into neat little chunks (tiddlers), but it
  encourages you to read it by hyperlinking rather
  than sequentially

5
Tiddlywikis in teaching and learning

• Reasoning Well  skills for philosophy, Wesleyan
  University
• to allow philosophy students and others to browse
  through key concepts in the analysis of
  reasoning, and to seek more or less detail
  according to need and interest.
• http//reasoningwell.tiddlyspot.com/

6
Tiddlywikis in teaching and learning

• GG461 Advanced Urban Analysis
• A means for promoting non-linear integrative
  thinking, and to collaboratively build a
  knowledge base in urban analysis

7
Tiddlywikis in teaching and learning

• Explorer  an experiment in nonlinear geographic
  writing
• tiddlywikis are probably better used as a
  personal notebook

8
Lessons and Best Practices

• cant assume that all students are technically
  competent enough, or interested and motivated
  enough to use these technologies
• effective use of this tool requires active
  engagement and commitment by both teacher and
  learner
• (if technology is used to engage students, should
  it be their technology we use?)
• issues with technology need for USB stick, need
  to download of Firefox,
• a lot of how do I questions distract from
  learning the subject matter
• is it the wrong non-linear technology or are
  they not ready for it?

9

• substantial preparation time is needed to
• build up initial rich content
• learn and make decisions about what features to
  use
• train the users
• commit to adding content on an ongoing basis
• other software tools are better for building up
  and managing content

10

• primarily a personal technology of use in
  preparing for a course, but probably less
  effective as an classroom instructional
  technology.
• might be effective with a smaller group, who are
  keen to adopt new technologies, and who have
  sufficient maturity and background in their
  subject to go non-linear

11
Thank You