Wiki Assignment

I decided to use my school's libary for the Wiki assignment. RRMS is a middle school in the Griffin, GA area. We serve about 650 students, most of whom come from low to middle SES homes (we are majority free/reduced lunch). At this time, all of our students are first-lanugage English speakers. In addition to the students, the library serves about 50 faculty and staff members. Our librarian has been out this week, so I was unable to discuss the current budget with her. I was able to speak with the aide, and she stated that, while she was unaware of the exact amount, that it was very low and not nearly enough to cover necessities. She also stated that the budget had been cut every year for the past few years. I think it would be a natural assumption to state that if the library were to use a wiki, it would need to be either free or very low cost. The library currently has several computers with internet access, but that is the extent of the use of technology. The RRMS library would almost certainly not meet the definition of Library 2.0! The main goal for the wiki would simply be to keep the faculty, students, and parents apprised as to what is going on in the library. The blog could be used to update new book/product arrivals, to update any changes in hours, to post book reviews, and information about the book clubs, yearbook staff issues, and newspaper, all of which are handled through the library.

I used the wiki matrix to compare/narrow down my choices for wiki's. Although the search returned several, I decided to focus on two: Netcipia and @wiki. Both were very comparable. They are both completely free, are designed for English speakers, have no topic restrictions, and offer unlimited bandwith quota. They also both offer a page history, WYSIWYG, and neither offer corporate support. Both seem as though they would fit the needs of a basic, free/low cost wiki that would be user friendly. I might choose the Netcipia over the @wiki, as it has a few additional features that may or may not be useful, such as PDF/XML exporting, offers a print-friendly view, and offers section editing.

I have spoken briefly with our media specialist about the topic of the class, and she has asked if I would share some of the things that we cover in class. I definitely intend to share this with her, as I think it would be a neat thing to do. I think that our students might really enjoy it as well.