Tools in Nursing School Curricula - Essay Example

Wikis are basically websites that host open forums. These forums allow authorized users to add and edit content onto the website. Such forums are increasingly being used by lecturers as they make it possible for students to participate and conduct group work sessions. This is especially useful for online learning courses as the use of wikis makes it possible for students who may happen to geographically live far from each other to participate in group work sessions (Bradshaw & Lowenstein 2011).

The technology works by the tutor forming the students into groups and creating an outline for the website. This outline is essential for demarcating the information that is to be posted by each group to specific pre-arranged parts of the website. This is made easier by asking the different groups to arrange their postings according to the table of contents. One of the main disadvantages of wikis is that the uncontrolled and random editing and addition of information can be perceived as potentially leading to a situation where the information on the website is not well organized leading to what can basically be termed as a “chaotic information space”.

The Usability of Wikis Technology in the Facilitation of Nursing EducationThe use of wikis in Nursing Education can make the learning process easier and more interesting for students. Faculty members can also be able to monitor and assess the wiki page so as to be able to gauge the progress of the class based on the postings made by the students onto the page. These postings are normally good indicators of the overall comprehension of the various lessons by the students (McGonigle & Mastrian 2012).

Incorporating the Use of Wikis into an Online Learning Situation that Happens to be of interest to me.I would incorporate the use of wikis into my education experience. This is mainly because wikis can potentially help students get different viewpoints, tips, and pointers from other students that might be of benefit to them. This would especially be useful in online learning as it is sometimes very difficult for one to obtain extra learning material related to the course. The use of Wikis can help create a forum that would basically allow one to simply post a question and other students can help by posting comments and links that can help in solving the problem (Kidd & Chen 2009).