Whither the Wikis? With your help, not the case for Physiopedia.
I came across this article recently on the Inside Higher Ed website and thought it a pertinent and interesting read in relation to what we are doing in Physiopedia. The article suggests that “it is becoming clearer where wikis are jibing with the culture of academe, and where they are not” and suggests that many of the academic wikis have failed to take off. A good time to talk about the academic successes and opportunities in Physiopedia.
We like to think of Physiopedia as an “academic wiki” in that we advocate evidence based content, have students completing academic work on the site and also allow our community to publish research and other academic work. As far as students completing classroom work in Physiopedia these projects have been a great success. So far six student projects have been completed in Physiopedia with great results and great feedback from tutors and students alike. Some have successfully been for academic credit and most have resulted in great content being produced for our profession. This looks like it is set to continue with more and more educators and their students becoming involved from all over the world.
With regards to publishing academic work (i.e. research) in Physiopedia it is still early days. For this to be a success we need, as suggested by the article, an overhaul in the way we think about publication. In my opinion publishing academic work in a professional topic specific wiki has a place along side traditional means of publishing in journals. Researchers can benefit from greater exposure and discussion surrounding their work, we can bridge the gap between completing research and publication and also provide an opportunity for publication to those that don’t want to go through the rigorous process of publishing work in a journal, a good example of this being student dissertations.
The opportunity to publish research in Physiopedia increases the impact of scholars, students, and bloggers by enabling them to share summaries and discuss academic papers online. The subsequent opportunity for open peer review then provides a place where academic papers can be summarized, discussed, clarified, or made fuller by the general community. Surely this collaborative activity surrounding academic work is a great way to highlight and discuss new research and subsequently provide evidence and support (or not!) for what we do.
Key to all of this is continuous support from our Physiopedia community. So if you have some research that you would like to publish in a new way, or an abstract from previously published work that would benefit from discussion among the community please do get in touch….
A Collaborative Classroom wiki, and so much more…..
Today was our turn at PT2010! Despite having the last session on the last afternoon but were really pleased to have a small group of highly engaged people in the room… or that’s how it seemed from the front anyway! Following a comprehensive guided tour of Physiopedia we had a very successful editing session where everyone got to create their profile and add images and video to the site.
Thank you to all who attended and as promised here are the slides from the presentation:
If you have any thoughts or ideas following on from this session please don’t hesitate to get in touch (I’ll be in touch on my return from Idaho!!).
See Physiopedia at PT2010 in Boston
I have finished my session preparations and am now am just packing my bags in anticipation of travelling over to Boston for the annual national APTA meeting. I will be running an education session with Eric Robertson titled The Next Textbook: Use of an International Collaborative Classroom Wiki. We will be talking all about wikis and giving a guided tour of Physiopedia as well as doing a guided editing session where you have the opportunity to add your bit to Physiopedia.
The session will be on Saturday June 19, 2010 from 13:00-16:00PM
So come along and join us, we look forward to seeing you all there!!
Abstract
This session will overview a new and ambitious project: Physio-pedia.com. Physiopedia is an open-source, non-profit project aiming to develop the pre-eminent collaborative, evidence-based resource on the web using a wiki platform. A wiki written by, and for physical therapists, Physiopedia has the potential to impact learning and evidence-based practice for clinicians, educators and students alike.
This session will explore the concepts of wikis as collaborative learning environments. Examples of the use of wikis in classrooms around the world will be highlighted through case reports as well as examples of students independently using a wiki to further their studies. Potential projects and utilization of Physio-pedia.com will be reviewed in the context of continuing professional development and crowdsourcing as a way to improve the collection knowledge of physical therapists and physiotherapists world-wide.
This session will also include a guided demonstration reviewing important concepts in page authoring on a wiki platform.
This session will be primarily useful to educators and students, but any physical therapist interested in learning about this online, evidence-based resource will find the session useful and informative.
Objectives:
Upon completion of this session, you will be able to:
- Describe and define a wiki, including strengths and weakness as a learning tool.
- Indentify opportunities in which a wiki can enable collaborative learning.
- Indentify ways in which Physio-pedia.com can be used in to enhance both evidence-based practice, professional development, and classroom learning.
- Understand and perform basic page editing functions using wiki syntax.
What is Wikipedia?
Common Craft have made another one of their really nice videos, this one on Wikipedia. It offers a great explanation of Wikipedia which translates very well to Physiopedia. So, when watching just keep Physiopedia and the physiotherapy and physical therapy community in mind.
