Using a Collaborative Wiki or Blog

A collaborative wiki or blog provides a centralized location for discussion on a given topic and creation of artefacts. With all members of an organization or work group having the ability to edit and revise, it allows for open participation. The groups can maintain a heterarchical structure with shared responsibility and leadership. The principles of produsage are supported by other aspects of wikis and blogs.
Possible uses in the work environment: sharing new and good solutions, requesting support or information, working together to find solutions, discussing new and ongoing issues.
Supporting learning and performance: Blogs and wikis would allow teachers to showcase lessons, home communication ideas and effective classroom management strategies. It would then become a storehouse for good ideas that other teachers could access as needed.
Teachers could also share information they had gathered from other resources, like other schools, publications, workshops, other blogs and wikis or other organizations. For example, CARD (Center for Autism and Related Disorders) has been a great resource as we learn to better serve our students with spectrum disorders. Having a place on the wiki or blog to share CARD resources and discuss how to implement them in the classroom would help disseminate that information throughout the school community.
CHALLENGES: As with all new things, this change should be managed effectively in order to be useful to the organization. If management initiated this change, it would be important to identify the needs of all groups, making the wiki or blog a valid tool to increase performance. Focus group discussions would help increase buy-in and teach employees how to use it. If this was a user-initiated effort, the needs of at least one group would all ready be known. It would be more effective for this group to begin using the wiki and blog to meet those needs and to develop efficient procedures before sharing it with the entire organization. At that point, a needs assessment would be useful as well as support from the management.
After the initiation, outside support should be given until the wiki or blog is self-sufficient. Already existing forms of communication, like a daily memo or weekly newsletter, can share the hyperlink and offer a review of discussion topics and new information. Showcasing different groups would also build interest and buy in.