Anyhoo, after looking through parts of the wikipatterns website, I think two adoption patterns would be beneficial to potential posters. One would be to offer a template for people to fill out. Unfortunately, people are lazy. If given a template to follow, it would take a lot of guesswork out for some people.

Another adoption pattern that may have led to more contributors would be the email to wiki pattern. I can see how some people might be turned off to the whole wiki/blog webpage, especially since these things are so foreign to many. If they could post to a wiki through email, it would make things that much easier for some people.

My wiki idea…I think I’ve settled on using a wiki as the main organizational thread for a week of professional development at the end of the summer for middle school science teachers. The idea is that the wiki would not only be an agenda for the week with related resources for each day and session, but would also be a place to collaborate, share ideas, and comment on sessions.

Here’s the plan so far: First day (after intro stuff) teachers would create a personal page to share their hall of fame of great stuff that they did with integrating technology in order to encourage higher order thinking in students. (Later people would peruse these pages looking for people to nominate for the awards that we are going to present in order to celebrate people’s accomplishments).

Also, each breakout session would have a page with the resources for the session and then teachers will either work together to edit a page that considers how the topic presented in the breakout could be helpful in bringing student thinking to a higher point on Bloom’s Taxonomy OR teachers will simply leave a comment to the page suggesting ideas they have.

Finally, since the focus of the week will be on how to use technology to get kids to think, or did I mention that already , there will be a page for each grade level to compose a running list of different strategies, ideas, etc. they have for particular lessons.

I think going for the critical mass and utilizing exponential numbers to gain viral growth may have helped. Possibly if everyone entered a test question they thought might be on the test, with their answer? Then students could go to the wiki to enter their info. gain info. as helpful hints to other possible exam questions, and possibly correct or disagree with answers given to the questions in the wiki.

What will motivate them? I thought of creating a patch or badge associated with having them post to the wiki. Girl Scouts love to earn badges, and there are a couple of websites that my own troops have used to earn a patch or badge. The projects these girls create are fantastic, and having a wiki where they can learn and share seems like a good idea. The projects they create are service learning projects, so the whole community can benefit from them.

Since Wikis are a really new technology to me, I am going to rely on all the new information I gathered from the 90-9-1 wiki and the patterns site to make sure that my “job-alike, best practices” wiki flies.

The idea behind my wiki evolved from numerous discussions I have had with colleagues about “best practices” as related to various job descriptions in our district. I realized that we really need a clearinghouse of job-alike “best practice” ideas for each of our departments. If the wiki idea flies, then it would be great to offer the same solution to school sites by setting up a grade-alike wiki for teachers to collaborate sharing best practices for each of their grade levels.

I will need to be a champion, waving the banner and standing on my soapbox to make sure that all audiences understand the purpose and significance of the project. I would set up an introduction page to entice even the most reluctant user, explaining the concept and relaying the fact that their opinions are important. Editing support and online tutorials in the form of podcasts, in the form of professional development, would be available for use.

Next I would have a barn raising, being careful to “seed and fertilize” the page with engaging content that would entice even the most negative “wikitroll” or most reluctant “wikiphobic”. I would use email to send “ticklers” to remind users of the wiki’s existence and to highlight user posts on the page. And finally I would make sure that contributors are acknowledged for their ideas and rewarded for their time.

And finally, I love the idea of finding a “wikignome”, editor extraordinaire, to help me oversee the project.

1: Seeding with content – yes, give the lurkers something to read from the get-go. Who knows, maybe sprinkling in a few typos here and there and some insignificant errors would encourage a lurker or two to begin contributing…..And this will give the Champions something to get started on right away (let the Gnomes clean up the rough edges.)

2: FAQ – I visit a few message boards (threads) regularly and even though I know a lot about the sites I visit, I still go to the FAQ pages once in awhile. Less so now than when I was new to the site, but everybody new has questions that they might not feel comfortable asking themselves. Anticipate their reservations by providing answers to questions that the probably have.

3: Threadmode – As I stated already, I am a message board (thread) kind of guy. I know sometimes these can get out of hand and sometimes downright nasty between users, but a moderator/admin can step in and shut down anything they find to be offensive – thus appearing to others as a Champion. It seems a WIKI could host a threadmode on other designated pages as a complement to the WIKI. A sort of sanctioned sidebar area or a ‘let’s take it outside’ place for issues/discussions.

All of the above, in my mind, cater to the people who aren’t regular contributors to the WIKI. And they will always be out there. The trick is to try to get them to ‘cross over’ to the contributing side each time they just try to lurk. The Champions and Gardeners/Gnomes will participate on their own (if they exist in the first place), but it takes some work to convert everyone else.

Also, giving stars and icons and titles to contributor’s avatars is a neat way to recognize regular participation. I even know of a site who gives credit for people not just participating in the online community, but they get recognized for providing ANSWERS and CORRECT INFORMATION to the sites as well. Interesting to me…..

2) At our high school we are currently preparing for the WASC accreditation thing. I’m not to excited about it because it just means more meetings and more wasted paper that clutters my room. Creating a wiki would give the staff/group leaders a place to report their data without having to open>update>save>send spreadsheets and Word docs over and over again.

Of the two, the toughest one to get going would probably be the second one. To get this group going I would probably have to rely on barn raising to show them the basics. Finding gnomes to help out amongst the yearbook advisor’s shouldn’t be a problem once I get the ball rolling.

To make your Comps Wiki work, you probably could have used the pattern of ASSESS WIKI ABILITY, where you could have made sure the people using the wiki understood the purpose of the wiki. You could have also rewarded the good contributors with positive feedback.