Blog #11: Sharing Knowledge the Collaborative Way

Parowan Gap, Utah       www.parowangap.org

SOUTHERN UTAH 2014

     Just west of the small town of Parowan, Utah lies a great stretch of barren nothingness known as the Escalate desert. During early times of volcanism, paired sheets of sheared sedimentary rock emerging from parallel plates rose up creating the Red Hills. As the protuberances pushed upwards a river ebbed and flowed across the ridge cutting a perfect east/west cut known as Parowan Gap. To the Paiute Indian it was referred to as "God's own house" (www.parowangap.org).

Parowan Gap petroglyphs   C. Seaman Photo

FROM THOSE WHO CAME BEFORE US-KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER 

     Inside the gaps' high cliffed walls, on rock that is less than suitable for messaging, early nomadic and semi-nomadic people etched an array of petroglyphs. There is ongoing debate as to what the glyphs represent and why they were chiseled here. There are dots, dashes, tracks, spirals, snakes, ladders, squiggles, and smiles dating back 15 million years http://www.utah.com/playgrounds/parowan_gap.htm. 

     The majority of experts involved as peer reviewer experts from the field of archaeoastronomical research agree that most of the glyphs represent the documenting and passing of early information. http://www.parowangap.org/peereview.htm 

     One scientist interviewed to describe the meaning of the etchings stated that the display of petroglyphs was not at all unique to Native Indian Culture. "Native peoples all over America worked out way to keep track of calendars and other types of complex knowledge" (Boma Johnson, 2000,  http://www.parowangap.org/peereview.htm).

POSSIBLY THE FIRST WIKI

     It is evident from this field trip that collaborative collections of knowledge to inform and educate others did not begin with the modern day WiKi. The WiKi gives us the space, like the cliffs, to leave information and to add to that left by others. There is plenty of space on the WiKi to add text or information existing in other media forms through use of widgets and links. Groups of individuals, like archaic people, can amend, add, or connect information left by others just as with the WiKi. Just as the rock was for the early peoples the WiKi space is living and morphing over time until the day it is closed and digitally archived to possibly be resurrected later in time and studied like the petroglyphic symbols in Parowan Gap.

WIKI-WHAT I THINK......Really!

     I support the use of WiKi for collaboration and active engagement for work or student groups. Like brainstorming, mind-mapping, or cranial dumping it promotes ideas among groups that dramatically enriches learning. I use WiKi technology in a course I teach in Community Dental Health. Students post in the WiKi on various aspects of community events they have participated in as a group. Each year as the WiKi builds the students conceptualization of the event is expanded and dental health concepts that were once without founded meaning are assimilated to a higher degree and much more meaningful to all involved. Questions surface that may not have been considered without the WiKi and many "a-ha" moments ensue. 

     As an instructor I can easily study the data from my vantage to see which students invested time and contributed to the WiKi project and who did not. Many times on group projects the lines of collaborative efforts are blurred when it comes to seeing who did what. 

     To be involved in a WiKi as a student, I have found the most exciting aspect is the blank space to create....much like this blog! It is frustrating when first learning the ropes of the WiKi to figure out how to delete something you install, but take heed and be of good cheer.....someone has come through the gap before you and left for you there on a virtual wall, a digital glyph, a video tutorial, to instruct and assist you when the information is most needed. 

                                                                                    Bing Images

     I hope you venture off the beaten path to discover and learn each day of your life!  Dr. Cindy