It’s Cool To Be Noticed, Unless…
Feb 23rd, 2008 by Mark Spahr
Yesterday, I opened my Google Reader and started looking through the new stuff. One of the blogs that I read is Learning in Maine which is written by Jim Burke and others. There was one new item. When I clicked, to my surprise I read this headline:
MVYDC Laptop Lunch Group
Jim had posted about the wiki for the lunch-time professional development group at my school. Our group tries to meet weekly to discuss technology integration, ways to use our laptops, and to have a chance to share ideas and collaborate. Here is what Jim said:
Wikispaces is an easy and convenient place to set up a digital learning space to complement face-to-face staff development. It’s free and straightforward . . . . without layers of bureaucracy to work through when dealing with limited time and energy.
Check out the MVYDC Laptop Lunch Group right here in the State of Maine as an excellent example.
Now that is just plain cool! Someone noticed our stuff and wanted to tell his readers about it!
“You mean other people can see our wiki?!”
I went looking for someone to tell about this coolness. Being the Friday of school vacation week, I didn’t have many options. I did find one other person who also is a member of the group, and I started to tell her about it. I was surprised to see that she didn’t share my enthusiasm. In fact her response was “you mean other people can see our wiki?”
She was actually rather upset about this. It turns out that she is not comfortable knowing that things she has posted are visible to anyone who happens to go looking. This was a concept that I never would have considered!
At our group’s first get together, I introduced the idea of using a wiki. I told everyone that, while only members could edit pages, anyone could view the pages. No matter, apparently she missed that part. I offered to go and immediately remove the information she had added. I also promised to remind everyone that our wiki is open for viewing at our next meet up. This seemed to help smooth things over.
What’s the point of this tale you ask?
I was reminded that everyone may not share my enthusiasm about having an audience for our work. People can have varied comfort levels about any personal information being out there for people to see. There was a little part of me that wanted to say “what are you so afraid of?” To me, it seemed like it was no big deal. To her, this was a very important issue. So I treated it the same way. Part of my job as the MLTI high school lead in my school is to work to break down barriers for using technology (of which there can be plenty). I don’t want to create more.
Some things to consider if you are starting a wiki:
- Make sure everyone in the group understands about the access level. You may even decide that you want to make your space private. Wikispaces will let you do this for free if your wiki is for education.
- You may want to discuss how you would like to use names. First name, last initial only? Full name? User names or nicknames? Let your group decide where their comfort level is. I am going to have this discussion with my group next week.
What do you think? Is there anything I haven’t thought of?
A very wise learning indeed. The internet and wikis are public space and some folks just aren’t real keen on thinking out loud for the whole world to see. In reality, not many people will probably ever visit your wiki outside of those directly involved, and there would not likely be anythng divulged on the site that would be confidential. But some folks feel like it is an invasion of privacy. One alternative that might work if you wanted to create something private would be a google group or a backpack page (http://www.backpackit.com). Both can be useful. A private page could allow greater participation and a wiki could be a place to publicly post your learnings that also allows others to join in.
First of all, Mark, my apologies for creating this can of worms. Like you, it had not occurred to me that anyone would be upset that others could look on . . . but I can now understand that it is an issue for some and that certainly has to be respected. I do note that your wikispace can be made private so only members of your group can view. Just go to managespace/permissions.
Of course, as Brian Spahr mentioned, there are many other options as well that can be as open or closed as desired.
This has been a lesson for me as well.
Would you prefer that I delete the post on Learning in Maine? Again, my apologies.
Regards,
Jim
@ Jim-
No worries and no apologies needed. I am glad it happened, if for no other reason than to make me think about something I hadn’t considered. I don’t see any reason to delete the post on Learning in Maine. It would be a shame to lose this possible learning moment for anyone who might follow this thread. As I mentioned in my post, I am going to discuss this with my full group and we will decide if we want to go fully private or not. Thanks again for noticing us and for responding!
Mark