I remember in circa 2000 when I was living in the Middle East and I had been paying attention to my students (female, arab national University) and their online connections...email, IM, etc. I was fascinated how fast they would scan shared network drives (it was a completely networked and mobile campus). My colleague who had taken photos of my wedding had copied them to a shared drive so I could save them on my laptop (his office was across campus), and within the 4 minutes that it took me to download them, the photos had already been copied by students and shared with other students on campus! I got an IM from a student before the download was complete complimenting me on the photos! I didn't realize it then, but I was watching Web 2.0 take hold.
As I was interviewing to return to Student Affairs in the states, I began to intertwine the traditional value for community in residence halls with the online behavior of my students in the Middle East, and I began fermenting an idea of an online community for a residence hall.
I got here and everyone was talking about Facebook and MySpace... "Doh!" My inspiration and aspiration had been deflated instantly. I wonder now if these sites were blocked where I was or if I was really that oblivious... (I'd hate to say how I usually answer that...)
Now, though my inspiration has been renewed with WikiSpaces. http://www.wikispaces.com
WikiSpaces (akin to Wikipedia) allows individuals, teachers, classes, schools, clubs, study groups, etc., etc., create their own Web 2.0 environments, with multiple pages and the flexibility to customize the degree of access, from totally public (true Web 2.0) to more controlled and even private access. The more basic levels are offered for free, while the more sophisticated and option-rich levels are available for somewhat reasonable prices.
This presents the opportunity for individuals to create intensely rich interactive efforts around a shared cause. On his own WikiSpace, Will Richardson presents this WikiSpace as a prime example of the potential of online collaboration between motivated individuals. Memory Alpha
Memory Alpha was created and is constantly enhanced through the combined contributions of hundreds of Star Trek enthusiasts, resulting in a "sum greater than its parts" online phenomenon.
(Will's own Wiki, hosts many educational and technology resources and links, in addition to Wikispaces. )
I want to help create that for my students in the residence hall. With Facebook and MySpace, the center of the network is the individual...all others link to the individual and through the individual to all the other individuals linked to him/her. Even with "groups" and what not, it is more a chaos structured network. With Wikis, though, the designation of pages within a Wiki-space allows for a structure to be placed around the online environment. Instead of individuals interacting around other's individual spaces, in a Wiki, individuals interact around a single space.
This provides unique opportunities in terms of creating a shared communal space in which all of those involved can contribute to, set standards for, and interact. In terms of education and community building within Residence Halls, it allows for the creation of individual pages for individual floors and the building as a whole, in which individuals from those areas can post and create content. The possibilities of content are endless, but could include favorite quotes, upcoming events, latest personal news, floor programs, trivia, etc. It also allows for the creation of special pages for study groups and online learning, i.e WebQuests, Podcasts, etc., which few residence hall environments have taken advantage of to date. Residence hall staff can have their own private spaces as well where staff meetings could be podcasted for those who miss it, special instructions for nightly duty rounds could be maintained, etc. There is a great amount of potential for residence hall staff to utilize WikiSpaces and bring Web 2.0 to Residence Halls 1.o.
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