According to “The Power of Wikis” article, the authors cite from Global Education & Learning Community that a wiki is “a collaborative Web site whose content can be edited by anyone who has access to it.” Wikis also contain multiple links to other pages relevant to the wiki. Wikipedia is the most popular example of wikis, but others exist too.
Wikis help foster an environment of collaboration. Stakeholders interested in a specific topic of the wiki are free to add their own information related to the wiki. When doing this, an editor has to interact with the subject matter, and it’s possible receive some new information that existed within the wiki, but not that person’s headspace.
“Social software refers to systems which facilitate human communication, interaction, and collaboration” states Kolbitsch & Maurer in the scholarly article entitled “A Theoretical Framework of Collaborative Knowledge Building with Wikis – a Systemic and Cognitive Perspective.” Wikis are unique within the realm of social software that also includes file sharing, blogs, vlogs, etc. With the power of anyone to edit, wikis provide a special twist to learning that other social softwares just don’t offer. What wikis offer is a unique area of the Web where large populations of people with common interests can gather to research a given topic. They’re also free to add in their own content to add to the overall knowledge base on the wiki about the topic. In a wiki, a user’s own knowledge can be shared and used as a resource by another person visiting the same wiki, so knowledge sharing is a main component.
Another attractive feature of wikis is how it’s able to help stakeholders learn from visiting the wiki. Folks visit a particular wiki with some sort of background knowledge. They’re aware about “some” of the aspects of the topic in their own headspace. Within the wiki, the learner has the ability to extend their knowledge base and understanding by considering information compiled from other editors of that wiki. This leads to deep understanding as illustrated in Figure 1, 2, and 3 within the Theoretical Framework article.
The remaining part of this post will be me applying and synthesizing some of the components within the Minecraft Wiki. I can honestly say, I have very little background knowledge of Minecraft. Here is basically what I know: I think you’re able to build with blocks, I think you collect resources, and it is a wildly popular game among the younger generation. I’m going to explore the wiki and hopefully extend my knowledge by reading parts of the wiki.
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My first goal was to build a little background knowledge on Minecraft. I learned that there are a bunch of versions available across dozens of platforms, and the game has been around for about 10 years. The “About” section isn’t really what I was in search of, so my next stop was to look at some of the links available on the left hand side. Like I said, I thought building and collecting materials was a big part of the game, so I clicked the link to the page “Blocks.” This information was way too convoluted and over my head. I might’ve bitten off more than I could chew, so I backtracked and was now in search of some sort of beginner’s guide. Under the same “Useful Pages” menu, I saw a link entitled “Tutorials,” and gave it a try. This was more of what I was in search of. This page was littered with novice content beginning from the very basics like the loading screen.
My main takeaway from this quick jab at an unfamiliar wiki is that wikis have something for everybody based on how passionate and devoted you are to the topic. I’m sure there are people out there who could recite everything on the Minecraft Wiki and have a lot more headspace for a lot of that information. For me though, I only knew a little bit about the game, but could still figure out how to find the information necessary for me if I wanted to begin the game. Furthermore, I knew I had a haven of information where I could visit if I came to a rough patch in the game. The link-ability is another aspect of wikis I appreciate. They are relatively easy to navigate and the abundance of links makes it easy to go down rabbit holes, but to people’s own enjoyment.
One more quick story and then I’m done. While in my Netflix rut, I decided to watch an enormously popular TV Show that has been around for over 2o years now, The Sopranos. The Sopranos is an 86 episode series with each episode lasting around an hour. So if we quick do the math…24 hours in a day…86 hours…we’re looking at…roughly…3 and a halfish days worth of television content. Not to mention, the series is littered with flashbacks, analogies, Italian dialect, hundreds of characters, mafia slang, complex storylines, volatile interpersonal relationships and so much more. So often I’d watch an episode and think to myself I’m not sure if I entirely understood what happened…and I’d run to the wiki. Wikipedia has a page devoted to The Sopranos, the series. But what I always appreciated was the fact that others created other wiki pages for each of the 86 episodes. I could read specifically what happened in one episode without the fear of spoiling events in future episodes, because the wiki was devoted to only that one episode. Luckily the good folks online broke the episodes down for me so I was able to appreciate the masterpiece the TV show truly is. I wouldn’t appreciate the show as much as I do without the wiki to help me fill in the gaps of my understanding.