Pathfinders

Wikis versus Websites

After reading Valenza's article 'Ten reasons why your next pathfinder should be a wiki' I felt encouraged to change my direction form creating a Pathfinder through a web page to creating a pathfinder through a Wiki. Valenza's 10 points did not grab me as being benefits for producing through a Wiki, except for point 6 & 7, edit anywhere and no knowledge of HTML language required, alas I gave the Wiki a try anyway.

I found that producing a Pathfinder through Wiki emphasised the problems of the World Wide Web and had me thinking negatively about the frustration of editing. I first encountered this when working through Goolge Documents. Fonts would not change size nor colour when you required it to, but then would change and save when not requiring it to. Picture importing was not as easy or successful as the 'Help' guide told you it would be. You can only remove the adds if you pay to upgrade. Video linking would not occur after instruction and the biggest downfall was Wiki's very plan and boring scroll down appearance. You can use the navigation buttons to create a 'layered' Wiki,through Wikispaces, but navigating the Navigation buttons to where you want them to be was not possible without much frustration.

After spending hours experiencing the negativity of Wiki's I changed my direction back to creating a Pathfinder through a website. Not knowing nor understanding HTML language has not stopped me creating, what I believe, to be a very informative,appealling and navigatable Pathfinder. Using Frontpage I have been able to insert graphics and create pages for my Pathfinder, one that will cater for all students with their differing learning styles. The only process I can not complete is placing it within a website, this I can leave to the Website co-ordinator, a person will thus skills.

Through my experience, Valenza has it wrong!

Valenza, 2009, Ten reasons why your next pathfinder should be a wiki. Retrieved September 14th, from,

http://informationfluency.wikispaces.com/Ten+reasons+why+your+next+pathfinder+should+be+a+wiki