The wiki experience was simple in theory and a bit more difficult in practice.
The wikiHow article, "How to Perform a Dance Lift," was easy to write. By thinking through an informative lens, the art of dancing was translated into an instructional list. The most difficult part was refraining from using excessive technical jargon that would render the article useless for the average person.
However, the nature of wikiHow, being a website full of instruction, made it easy to find related wikiHows and link them together. For example, when explaining how to start the lift in step one, there was a bullet to explain the foot positioning of each dancer involved. Foot positioning is a whole can of worms in itself. This seemed problematic at first, but was resolved by linking. The bullet about foot positioning for the lift was then linked to an entirely different wikiHow article explaining the basic positions used in dance. By having this link, the article on lifts did not even have to consider going in depth about positioning, the positioning article itself went in depth, and the link connected them.
The wikis of Web 2.0 create a literal interconnected web of information. One thing connects to something else, which connects to something else, and so on and so forth. In creating a wiki, these connections are really brought to light, because anyone has access to these links and information. The above example about positioning is specific to the "How To Do A Dance Lift" article, however, upon looking at other wikiHows, strong articles open up links to help the user get a more through understanding of the content.
Photographs were especially useful in creating a the "How To Perform A Dance Lift" page. By photographing the activity, it helped break the dance lift down into steps. Every time there was a change, it needed to be noted. Because a lift itself is a collaborative activity, the participating dancers in the photograph gave input on what they felt were necessary steps as well. The dancers said "I do this, then this, then this," and by each being individual human beings, they each had a different way of explaining the lift. Sometimes, the dancers even helped clarify each other's descriptions. This was sort of a "real life wiki" situation, where the dancers built upon the information each other had in order to come up with the best possible description. The dancers in these photographs are all either 18 or offered their parents expressed written permission to use them in photographs.
Taking photographs is also particularly helpful to anyone reading the article for understanding. Dance is a visual art. The easiest way for it to be taught is visually as opposed to linguistically. A description can be so colorful, but may not be understood until it is seen. For example, 'the side lifters should position one hand at the armpit of the dancer being lifted, with their thumbs turned in towards them and flex the hands backwards, as if to create a shelf for the dancer's arm to rest on," is a lengthy and thorough description. This description could also be very confusing without seeing it, and that is why photographs are important and useful. They transform the article from okay or confusing into thorough and full of information.
While looking back and revisiting the "How To Do A Dance Lift" article, the subject material may also do well as an instructional video, or with accompanying videos. Again, dance is visual in nature. The lift is all about aesthetic appeal. An entire instructional video edited together negates the usefulness of this article as a wiki, open for anyone's input. However, small video clips used to accompany each individual step would lend themselves to being available to help with the descriptions in a wiki format. The video clips could be visuals of the steps, while the explanations in the steps themselves were open to the wiki community and strive towards having the best possible language used.
Because the knowledge contained within "How To Do A Dance Lift" was personal, there were no other actual resources on that specific topic. Searching the topic brought up other personal accounts via web forums or basic lifts for various types of partner dancing. This is the sort of information passed down from teacher to student, but since dance is a sort of nontraditional education, instructional materials aren't widely available on line. The use of such personal knowledge presented a unique challenge in that there was nothing to go back to or reference when creating the wikiHow article.
The coding itself of the wikiHow page was a bit of an adventure. The coding was basic HTML, however, it contained nuances that needed to be learned, such as how to create steps and separate the article into the sections allowed. Copying off of another article presented some small challenges, like not being able to figure out the meaning of a couple of small bits of code. Thankfully, wikiHow being an instructional website contained instructions that explained how to code a wikiHow article. There were also challenges like there are with all code, such as the smallest space or a wrong period throwing off the code entirely. Code needs to be specific and clean, even in an article about dancing.
Organizational communication theory discusses how information is nearly useless unless it is shared and applied. WikiHow and other wiki sites do just that. They provide ways to share information over the web and provide says to apply it. WikiHow specifically has many articles with easy real life application. Dance lifts are not traditionally educated and this provides a way for dancers all over to learn directly from an article. The same goes for recipes and any one who eats, or anyone who has a piece of rope and needs to know how to make a knot. People all have differences, and these differences can either create barriers or work together collaboratively for the best possible solution. This includes how things are explained step by step in an instructional article. The wikiHow experience was one that offered a practical trial in applying communication.
The wikiHow article, "How to Perform a Dance Lift," was easy to write. By thinking through an informative lens, the art of dancing was translated into an instructional list. The most difficult part was refraining from using excessive technical jargon that would render the article useless for the average person.
However, the nature of wikiHow, being a website full of instruction, made it easy to find related wikiHows and link them together. For example, when explaining how to start the lift in step one, there was a bullet to explain the foot positioning of each dancer involved. Foot positioning is a whole can of worms in itself. This seemed problematic at first, but was resolved by linking. The bullet about foot positioning for the lift was then linked to an entirely different wikiHow article explaining the basic positions used in dance. By having this link, the article on lifts did not even have to consider going in depth about positioning, the positioning article itself went in depth, and the link connected them.
The wikis of Web 2.0 create a literal interconnected web of information. One thing connects to something else, which connects to something else, and so on and so forth. In creating a wiki, these connections are really brought to light, because anyone has access to these links and information. The above example about positioning is specific to the "How To Do A Dance Lift" article, however, upon looking at other wikiHows, strong articles open up links to help the user get a more through understanding of the content.
Photographs were especially useful in creating a the "How To Perform A Dance Lift" page. By photographing the activity, it helped break the dance lift down into steps. Every time there was a change, it needed to be noted. Because a lift itself is a collaborative activity, the participating dancers in the photograph gave input on what they felt were necessary steps as well. The dancers said "I do this, then this, then this," and by each being individual human beings, they each had a different way of explaining the lift. Sometimes, the dancers even helped clarify each other's descriptions. This was sort of a "real life wiki" situation, where the dancers built upon the information each other had in order to come up with the best possible description. The dancers in these photographs are all either 18 or offered their parents expressed written permission to use them in photographs.
Taking photographs is also particularly helpful to anyone reading the article for understanding. Dance is a visual art. The easiest way for it to be taught is visually as opposed to linguistically. A description can be so colorful, but may not be understood until it is seen. For example, 'the side lifters should position one hand at the armpit of the dancer being lifted, with their thumbs turned in towards them and flex the hands backwards, as if to create a shelf for the dancer's arm to rest on," is a lengthy and thorough description. This description could also be very confusing without seeing it, and that is why photographs are important and useful. They transform the article from okay or confusing into thorough and full of information.
While looking back and revisiting the "How To Do A Dance Lift" article, the subject material may also do well as an instructional video, or with accompanying videos. Again, dance is visual in nature. The lift is all about aesthetic appeal. An entire instructional video edited together negates the usefulness of this article as a wiki, open for anyone's input. However, small video clips used to accompany each individual step would lend themselves to being available to help with the descriptions in a wiki format. The video clips could be visuals of the steps, while the explanations in the steps themselves were open to the wiki community and strive towards having the best possible language used.
Because the knowledge contained within "How To Do A Dance Lift" was personal, there were no other actual resources on that specific topic. Searching the topic brought up other personal accounts via web forums or basic lifts for various types of partner dancing. This is the sort of information passed down from teacher to student, but since dance is a sort of nontraditional education, instructional materials aren't widely available on line. The use of such personal knowledge presented a unique challenge in that there was nothing to go back to or reference when creating the wikiHow article.
The coding itself of the wikiHow page was a bit of an adventure. The coding was basic HTML, however, it contained nuances that needed to be learned, such as how to create steps and separate the article into the sections allowed. Copying off of another article presented some small challenges, like not being able to figure out the meaning of a couple of small bits of code. Thankfully, wikiHow being an instructional website contained instructions that explained how to code a wikiHow article. There were also challenges like there are with all code, such as the smallest space or a wrong period throwing off the code entirely. Code needs to be specific and clean, even in an article about dancing.
Organizational communication theory discusses how information is nearly useless unless it is shared and applied. WikiHow and other wiki sites do just that. They provide ways to share information over the web and provide says to apply it. WikiHow specifically has many articles with easy real life application. Dance lifts are not traditionally educated and this provides a way for dancers all over to learn directly from an article. The same goes for recipes and any one who eats, or anyone who has a piece of rope and needs to know how to make a knot. People all have differences, and these differences can either create barriers or work together collaboratively for the best possible solution. This includes how things are explained step by step in an instructional article. The wikiHow experience was one that offered a practical trial in applying communication.
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