Comments on: WikiEducator vs WikiSpaces http://dragonsinger57.com/2009/08/22/wikieducator-vs-wikispaces/ creating a space for educational sharing from small town new zealand Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:10:57 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 hourly 1 By: Wayne Mackintosh http://dragonsinger57.com/2009/08/22/wikieducator-vs-wikispaces/comment-page-1/#comment-156 Wayne Mackintosh Mon, 31 Aug 2009 01:44:39 +0000 http://dragonsinger.edublogs.org/?p=214#comment-156 Hi Jo That's a good comparison. You're right -- Wikispaces is easier to learn, especially for newbies. As Paul mentioned, we will be implementing a Wysiwyg editor in the near future which will make this a lot easier for teachers. There are a couple of important reasons why Wikieducator chose to use the Mediawiki software engine: 1) Its open source :-) which means we're free to develop new features designed specifically for educators and you can trust our commitment to free content as active members of the free culture movements! 2) The technology has proven scalability -- it runs a top 10 website website (Wikipedia) and we collaborate with the Wikimedia Foundation on software improvements and features 3) Mediawiki provides considerable power to the user to innovate using the template engine. Welcome aboard and we're proud to have you join our WIkiEducator family :-) Hi Jo

That’s a good comparison. You’re right — Wikispaces is easier to learn, especially for newbies. As Paul mentioned, we will be implementing a Wysiwyg editor in the near future which will make this a lot easier for teachers.

There are a couple of important reasons why Wikieducator chose to use the Mediawiki software engine: 1) Its open source :-) which means we’re free to develop new features designed specifically for educators and you can trust our commitment to free content as active members of the free culture movements! 2) The technology has proven scalability — it runs a top 10 website website (Wikipedia) and we collaborate with the Wikimedia Foundation on software improvements and features 3) Mediawiki provides considerable power to the user to innovate using the template engine.

Welcome aboard and we’re proud to have you join our WIkiEducator family :-)

]]> By: Paul Seiler http://dragonsinger57.com/2009/08/22/wikieducator-vs-wikispaces/comment-page-1/#comment-155 Paul Seiler Sun, 23 Aug 2009 00:27:43 +0000 http://dragonsinger.edublogs.org/?p=214#comment-155 Jo, interesting to read your initial comparison. As WikiEducator uses the same engine as Wikipedia there are both advantages (e.g. WE benefits from the large investment made by the MediaWiki Foundation) and downsides (e.g. some training required to get going). The Ministry of Education is investing in some tool improvements (e.g. a rich text editor for those who prefer this method for creating/editing). You can read more about this here: http://www.wikieducator.org/Funding_proposals/Reusable_and_portable_content_for_New_Zealand_schools I look forward to reading more as you progress through the L4C training. Paul. Jo, interesting to read your initial comparison. As WikiEducator uses the same engine as Wikipedia there are both advantages (e.g. WE benefits from the large investment made by the MediaWiki Foundation) and downsides (e.g. some training required to get going). The Ministry of Education is investing in some tool improvements (e.g. a rich text editor for those who prefer this method for creating/editing). You can read more about this here: http://www.wikieducator.org/Funding_proposals/Reusable_and_portable_content_for_New_Zealand_schools

I look forward to reading more as you progress through the L4C training.

Paul.

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