An International Perspective on Wikis

Throughout my research and exploration on wikis I have found a variety of information from schools and universities outside the United States and their exploration into the world of wikis. With technology already making the world a smaller place, I was interested in seeing how others schools throughout the world were doing with wikis.
One school in Australia Deakin University offers dual mode delivery of degree to students. "Approximately half of Deakin's student body completes some or all of their degree through distance education " (Augar, Raitman and Zhou 2004). The paper I found from Deakin University discusses their research on distance education. Previous research they cited described students' dislike of a lack of interaction in an online class. The focus on the last section of the paper was a discussion on the university's use of wikis as an ice breaker to improve student interaction in online classes. The research reported that, "Overall the wiki proved to be a good technology for online collaboration. All participating students completed the exercise to a satisfactory standard, proving they could use the wiki in the process. Throughout the two week duration of the icebreaker exercise there was no misuse or intentional deletions from the wiki indicating that the security measures taken were adequate and effective" (Augar, Raitman and Zhou 2004). I thought this was a unique of a wiki to promote collaboration prior to entering into an online learning environment.

Another interesting pert of this paper was that they referenced Georgia Tech's use of a similar type of use of a wiki. I thought it was neat that while I am searching for international perspectives on wikis use a university in Australia was using research and an example wiki from my home state as their example of using wikis to promote collaboration and build an online community.

Teaching and Learning Online with Wikis
Author: Naomi Augar, Ruth Raitman and Wanlei Zhou
School of Information Technology
Deakin University
http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/perth04/procs/augar.html

Change Is Here- Make Sure You Are On Board

“The needs met by wikis—easy authoring of Web content, open access, unrestricted collaboration—are simply not being satisfied by present IT strategies and tools”.(Lamb 2004) Wikis are filling a gap in the new world of Web 2.0 for easy ways to edit and maintain web spaces. The reaction to the new type of Internet collaboration is varied between educators, however, “change is happening. What remains unknown is whether educators, institutions, and developers will join (or coexist with) the revolutionary forces or whether they’ll stand their ground and simply be overrun”. (Lamb 2004) I am optimistic that based on the websites and research I am examined throughout my blog teachers, instructors, and experts are beginning to embrace wikis for classroom activities, classroom web pages, and ways to teach courses. “It’s possible that wikis might simply represent the latest advance in online interaction—a cost-effective and readily adopted knowledge management tool. But as wikis make their mark in higher education, the ultimate implications may prove to be far more profound than mere gains in efficiency”(Lamb 2004). As we continue to look at examples of wikis in education we see more than just a simpler and more efficient type of webpage, but a space in which real higher order learning is taking place and collaboration is being challenged and expanded in our academic environments. The implication of what wikis will become is really based on how instructors, teachers, and researchers receive this new technology and if and when they begin to use it. I am optimistic though that wikis will be a part of the new future of education.

Wide Open Spaces: Wikis, Ready or Not by Brian Lamb: http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm04/erm0452.asp

The Future of Wikis

I think motivation and collaboration are two key benefits to using a wiki. One draw back that has been discussed is the ability to vandalize wikis or delete parts of wikis. Wikipedia, which is the most widely known wiki, has been criticized by experts, teachers, and librarians for its inability to control postings and its credibility problems. This two drawbacks to wikis are common responses to the incorporation of wikis in the classroom that many teachers express. The future of wikis though is developing and the longer wikis are being used the more controlled and credible they will become. The future of wikis is sites like Citizendum, which was created by the co founder of Wikipedia. Citizendum attempts to address the credibility issues with Wikipedia and is a good example of how over time wikis will continue to evolve. I think the same is true with wikis uses and integration in education. The longer wikis are around and the more teachers that begin to understand the collaborative power of wikis the power benefits and uses we will find for this new piece of technology.

Citizendum Article: http://www.pbs.org/teachers/learning.now/2007/04/wikipedias_new_competition_cit_1.html

Beginning To Make Connections

So it has been an interesting week and I feel very behind in my postings. My husband is currently training in Virginia as a Quartermaster in the US Army. He has been there three weeks and this weekend, I got a chance to visit him for a four day weekend, which was great, but the last thing that was on my mind unfortunately was graduate school. Especially after the eight hour drive home this afternoon. However, now that I am back in town, I have a few thoughts that I would like to share. I am trying to begin pulling together my ideas about wikis.

Definition: “A wiki is a collaborative Website whose content can be edited by anyone who has access to it” (Boulos, Maramba, and Wheeler 2).

Examples: There are a lot of examples of wikis. Wikipedia (ww.wikipedia.org) is one of the most well known examples of a wiki; however there are many examples of teachers who are using wikis for education.

How to Use a Wiki in Education: A wiki can be used for a variety of purposes. The main use that I have explored is the use of wikis for student collaboration and group work. “Wikis can be used as a source for obtaining information and knowledge, and also as a method of virtual collaboration, e.g., to share dialogue and information among participants in group projects, or to allow learners to engage in learning with each other, using wikis as a collaborative environment to construct their knowledge or to be part of a virtual community of practice” (Boulos, Maramba, and Wheeler 2). Wikis can also be used to create classroom environments on the Internet or to create a space to display student work.

Benefits of Wikis: Wikis can stimulate and engage students in the collaborative process and in an activity that encourages the creation of knowledge and deeper understanding, “According to Jonassen et al. 'mindtools' act as cognitive reflection and amplification tools, aiding the construction of meaning, through the act of self-design of knowledge databases [55]. Wikis in particular, and blogs to a lesser extent, enable such activities, and actively involve learners in their own construction of knowledge” (Boulos, Maramba, and Wheeler 2).

Reference: http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1472-6920-6-41.pdf

I am going to continue to draw conclusions based on the information, I have presented throughout my previous blogs. My next blog will further explore the educational benefits of wikis and some of the drawbacks I have found to using wikis in a classroom environment.

The Media Equation: Improving Design Through Understanding

This week I read chapter 1 in The Media Equation by Byron Reeves and Clifford Nash. I found this chapter to be an interesting examination of human technology interaction. The concept of the media equation was developed based on a research study “Social Responses to Communication Technologies” (Reeves and Nash 5). The study discovered, “In short, we have found that individuals’ interactions with computers, televisions, and new medias are fundamentally social and natural, just like interactions in real life”( Reeves and Nash 5). The idea that people respond to and interact with computers is something that I see daily with colleagues and students who talk to their computers, especially when the technology is not doing what they want it to do or not functioning properly. One aspect of the article that I found particularly interesting and valid for my discussion of wikis is the influence of the media equation on the development of media. The design of the media in this case can be improved by examining how people respond to the use and functions of the wiki. The wiki needs to create “positive responses including a feeling of accomplishment, competence, and empowerment” (Reeves and Nash 9). By examining wikis and other media through the lens of the media equation, we could improve how people use the media and in turn the functionality of the media. If the media is easier to use and creates a positive response from people it will make it easier to integrate the media into education. I know a lot of my colleagues would be more willing to try to integrate technology into their classrooms and curriculum if they associated with a more positive social response.

Another Different Perspective of Wikis

I have been both a fan and critic of Wikipedia, since I was introduced to this online phenomenon in one of my graduate courses. I think it is an interesting idea for collaboration; however there are various issues of quality of content and reliability of the source that makes Wikipedia not a valid source in education. However, the Wikipedia model of a collaborative environment where the group is smarter than the individual has an interesting design that could possibly be integrated into the classroom. This week I found an article, From Wikipedia to the Classroom:
Exploring Online Publication and Learning by Andrea Forte, Amy Bruckman from the GVU Center, College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, that examines the structure of a wiki and its possible example for creating “authentic classroom writing activities” (Bruckman and Forte 183). I thought this was another unique look at how wikis can be used besides a social networking tool. The article examines the four principles that are commonly outlined for creating authentic writing activities. According to Shaffer and Resnick as cited in Bruckman and Forte’s article, the four dimensions of “authentic” writing activities include:
• personal (students care about it),
• disciplinary (aligned with the intellectual tools and practices of the domain),
• real world (connected to the world outside the classroom), and
• assessment (assessment aligned with learning activities).

It is difficult in my opinion to create activities that meet all four of these dimensions in one activity. The article focuses on a pilot study on using a wiki to create authentic writing activities. The findings of the study point to creating a structured activity that meets lesson and learning objectives, but still allows students some flexibility in the creation of content to publish on the wiki. It also focuses on the importance of audience in creating an authentic writing activity. While the article supports my previous concerns about the problems with privacy and quality of wiki content it does present a unique view of using the Wikipedia format to creating a realistic lesson that engages students in authentic writing that can be academically structured. The writers of this article are taking their findings and creating a science based wiki using a similar format to Wikipedia and combining the knowledge they gained from their study. I think this is a great example not only of using a wiki in the classroom, but using reflection and research as a way to improve upon wikis to make them more classroom friendly.

Article: From Wikipedia to the Classroom:Exploring Online Publication and Learning
http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/1160000/1150061/p182-forte.pdf?key1=1150061&key2=8623746711&coll=GUIDE&dl=GUIDE&CFID=16394746&CFTOKEN=16565407

(You have to create an account to view the article - but it is free to download)

Using Wikis In A Different Way

As we approach the end of the school year, I am trying to still keep my students engaged. My next unit for my seventh grade English class is on creative writing. I thought it might be interesting to look at examples of wikis that are dedicated to creative writing or that might inspire creative writing. I found this interesting wiki after looking at webenglishteacher.com. The Memoryarchive is an interesting wiki that is dedicated to sharing memories. This is the page in the wiki that provides information for teachers and students. http://www.memoryarchive.org/en/For_Teachers_and_Students I think this would be a great wiki to use for students to write a creative writing piece on one of their memories or to interview a family member and write about their memory. The students could then publish their writings on the Memoryarchive wiki, which I think would give them ownership over their writing, since they would be publishing it on the Internet. I think this is an interesting way to integrate wikis into my classroom, that is different and less time consuming than creating my own class wiki. \

A Interesting Case Study

One thing that I have really been looking for as I explored wikis in education is examples of good integration and evidence of student learning through the use of wikis. Because the question really comes down to when as teachers we decide to embark into the world of wikis, is this really going to help my students learn? If the answer is no then I am wasting my time trying to learn about this new technology (at least this is the answer that many of my colleagues readily and probably too quickly toss out about most new technologies), but never the less it is true if it does not show true potential to help students learn then we shouldn't be investing time and money into it. So this week, in my continued to quest to disprove the naysayers at my school and prove that wikis are a great tool for collaboration and learning, I found a great case study on wikis used as a part of a collaborative storytelling project in a primary school in Canada. The case study determines that using a wiki as a collaborative web-based storytelling tools is feasible and beneficial. It also provides good guidelines for ensuring the activity is successful in section 4. Implications. One thing the case study advocates is letting the groups’ self-organize. In previous postings, I have talked about assigning students roles to ensure participation, however this is another interesting way to examine the structure of the wiki. If students choose their own organization and roles perhaps they will take more ownership over their work, since they chose their own role in the project. This is an idea that the case study supports. For all you educators out there that want to see an interesting implementation of a wiki and the subsequent research, I found this to be an extremely interesting case study.

Wiki as a Tool Case Study: http://iit-iti.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/iit-publications-iti/docs/NRC-48234.pdf

Selecting A Wiki For the Classroom

This has been a long and busy week. I really don’t understand why my school has its Spring Break in March, because I could really use another one right about now. Despite my feelings of exhaustion this week, I was able to find a very interesting research based article out of a University in Canada examining the features and criteria for selecting and using wikis in education. As part of my attempt to coalesce my ideas about wikis, I wanted to determine a way to evaluate the selection of a wiki for educational use. Some of the things that I believe are important in determining if a wiki should be used in education is cost, usability, and privacy controls. In education, funding is always something that must be considered, however there are a number of wikis that are free for educators. How easy a wiki is to use for both the teacher and the students is very important. Teachers already have a lot of other things to deal with that are time consuming, so in order for technology to beneficial it should not add to the teachers workload and frustrations, instead it needs to be easy to update and maintain to make it feasible for most teachers. The other issue that must be considered before using a wiki in the classroom is privacy controls. In order to protect our students, teachers need to make sure that they have the ability to password protect their wiki in order to prevent just anyone from commenting on your class wiki. The article I read this week identified these as well as other criteria. They came up with an interesting list of consideration for choosing a wiki as well as other considerations that need to be made for implementing wikis in education. One consideration that the report notes is the formatting of each wiki is different and for on you might need to know html, while another wiki might just require you to click a button. This is something I considered when creating my own classroom wiki. I have limited knowledge of html, and most of my students have even less knowledge of html, so I had to find a user friendly wiki. So I don’t think that this is a problem, because there are so many different wikis and choices now that most people can find a wiki that suits their formatting needs. Another idea that the report introduced that I thought was interesting was the fact that unlike thread discussions it is often difficult to see who the editor of a wiki is, so that credit can be appropriately given. One thing I did to counter this issue with my class wiki is that I have students sign in with their name and password to the wiki and then when they edit PbWiki sends me an e-mail with the name of the person editing and which information they changed or added, so I can give credit. That is how I approached this issue, however with a larger class or a school-wide wiki this is something that must be considered and addressed.
I thought this report presented an interesting look at wikis and educational use.

Technical Evaluation Report - Educational Wikis: features and selection criteria: http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/163/244

Wiki As An Equalizing Tool

I have continued to explore the idea of collaboration using wikis and this week I also found an article that discusses the collaborative possibilities of both blogs and wikis. The article
EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES Blogs and Wikis: Environments for On-line Collaboration is a scholarly examination of blogs and wikis and their use as a collobrative tool. The reason I enjoyed this article is because it explores the concept of Web 2.0. I guess it is still a novel idea to me, since I just learned about the idea, but I find the comparison between first generation web to Web 2.0 very interesting. One idea that the article presents that I had never thought about, but is a great observation is that, “Discussion forums are often seen as an equalizing tool, which encourage universal participation in discussion compared to face-to-face dialogue” (Godwin-Jones, 2003, pg.12). This is a great aspect of using wikis and blogs to foster discussion and student collaboration, because it allows each students voice to be heard equally. One of my biggest concerns when leading discussions in my classroom is that students that have opinions or want to speak are afraid or feel like they are not being listened to, because other students are confident and sometimes louder with their opinions. I attempt to foster a classroom environment where students feel they can share and discuss freely, however I know that in reality I struggle to accomplish creating that environment. The great part about a wiki is this environment is almost automatic. Students feel a certain amount of freedom, because they are not face-to-face and they can share their ideas without any interruption. This is an aspect of the wiki experience that I had not thought about, but it adds to the arguement, why not use wikis in education? Check out the article at http://llt.msu.edu/vol7num2/pdf/emerging.pdf. IT provides soem additional resources at the end that will be benefcial as well.

A Good Resource

I think becoming an expert in a field requires not only knowing about what a wiki is, but what wiki sites are good to use for your classroom, how other teachers use the wiki, and how to set up a wiki to make it work for you and your students. This week I found an interesting resource for teachers. PB Wiki, the site I have been using for my class wiki, has put together videos from real teaches discussing wikis and using them in the classroom. Some of the videos are really interesting and I think they would be a good tool for teachers who are looking to introduce wikis to their colleagues. Another great future that PB Wiki is offering is a presentation package. This is a great idea for teachers who want to share what they have learned about wikis and want to teach others. The package includes a presentation, a document that explains the details of a wiki, three premium wiki packages to give away to your audience, and a free shirt. So if you are interested in sharing more about wiki with teachers at your school this is a great site to check out.

http://educators.pbwiki.com/PBwiki%20educator%20videos

Occasionally, There Is Greatest

In my search to expand my knowledge of wikis, I have started to look for good examples of using wikis in education in order to understand how successful wikis are created. One thing I have found that most successful education wikis have in common is the idea that they turn control for the content over to the students and emphasize student ownership over the wiki. I found this award winning wiki in my quest. This is the ultimate pen pal project, if you can even label them it that basic of terms. It involves connecting a class in Georgia with a class in Bangladesh. This is an interesting site to look at the structure of a wiki, because it has a structured set-up with the students using discussion tabs and then posting on a wiki page under their topic. I liked that this wiki has a firm structure, but it still gives the students control over their individual pages. I also liked that the template that was provided for the students to use in their postings. I had never thought of giving the students a template, but it is a way to provide structure without controlling too much of the student ownership over the content. I also enjoyed seeing the rubric that was given and the criteria on evaluating the rubric. This is one area that I have definitely struggled with when using wikis and blogs in my classroom. I know that my students are learning and working collaboratively I can see it in their participation in discussions and postings, but figuring out how to evaluate the wiki or blog is difficult. I liked the approach the rubric uses by assigning very specific point values and guidelines. (Here is a link to the rubric http://flatclassroomproject.wikispaces.com/Rubrics) I think this is an excellent example for wiki design, because it provides structure and feedback for the students, but it still allows the students to maintain ownership over the content and also flexibility in their learning and also provides for student collaboration.

http://flatclassroomproject.wikispaces.com/

Importance of Community Discussion in Our Changing Classrooms

Part of being a teacher, I sincerely believe is learning as much and maybe more from our failures in the classroom as opposed to our success. My philosophy has always been I will try something once, whether it is a new type of food, a new driving route to work, or a new restaurant or shopping center. I believe in giving everything at least one shot to prove it is better than what I have been doing before, and it is this same philosophy that I have carried into my classroom. The only problem with this philosophy is that sometimes learning form your mistakes can be a difficult and painful process and one that often I question if I want to repeat. Integrating more and more technology in my classroom has given me both some amazing successes and some horrifying crash and burn failures, but I press forward. One thing that I have always found helpful when trying to overcome my technology defeats is talking to someone else who has also been through a similar experience and figuring out how they handled or did things differently, So, in my quest to wiki expertise, I decided to also look for a way to validate my failures and I found this wonderful bog that is aptly entitled, “My Brilliant Failure”. It is posted on a really interesting website, Kairosnews: A Weblog for Discussing Rhetoric, Technology and Pedagogy. This is a really interesting forum where tons of discussion is occurring about research, experience, and observations about technology and a lot about wikis in general. I think being part of a community of people working on and researching similar ideas is important for changing the face of teaching and learning. I truly believe that wiki and blogs and other social interactive software are changing our classrooms whether we are involved or not. All of my students have a MySpace or Facebook account, so whether we like it or not teachers need to bone up on their technology knowledge and be prepared for the classroom change that is coming. This article “My Brilliant Failure” highlighted how not allowing enough control over a wiki content limits learning and the effectiveness of the tool, which I thought was a good observation. However, I chose to blog about this site this week more for the fact that there is a place for discussion and venting about technology and rhetoric and composition, where you can receive feedback and opinions. Plus it made me feel better to see someone else dealing with a brilliant failure, although I don’t think I could call many of my failures brilliant.

Kairosnews: http://kairosnews.org/node/3794

Wikis and Writing - Web 2.0 at its best!

I was inspired by one of my classmate’s discussions of Web 2.0, a term that I have recently become very familiar with, and so I began to look at ideas of this Web 2.0 concept in terms of my focus on wikis. I found this interesting wiki from the New York City Writing Project (http://www.nycwp.org/paulallison/newsItems/departments/wikiTeaching). They introduce their blog as a story about moving from the “old style” of interactive websites into “Web 2.0 dynamic wiki”. I found their rationale for using a wiki over a website interesting and very much in line with the research I have found supporting the use of wikis. “By choosing the wiki over the website, we were choosing to put students into the middle of this project of building this new form of information, knowledge, and culture”. The idea of placing students into real meaningful learning situations where they take ownership of their work is one of the key reasons I would chose to incorporate a wiki in my classroom. This wiki is a wonderful example of the collaboration, self-awareness, and learning that can be accomplished through a wiki. Instead of students feeling like writing is a chore that the do alone with no social interaction, which for many is not an activity that they enjoy nor are actively engaged in learning, the wiki provides an opportunity for collaboration and peer editing of writing, but it adds a social interaction and a feeling of community that is often lost in some traditional English classrooms. I especially found the wiki page Fostering Latino Pride: A Story of Collaborative Writing very insightful about the expressive ability of a wiki, but also the opportunity for real instruction on writing and expressing ideas in written form. (http://www.nycwp.org/paulallison/2005/03/24#a32) This is a great example of a wiki be3ing used to foster collaboration and writing skills.

The Digital Native Divide - Bracing For Change

This week I read an interesting article from the Journal of Online Education, Uses and Potential of Wikis in the Classroom, the article focused on the changing paradigms in education from print based to orally based learning. It examined the idea that Digital Natives, students that have grown up their whole lives surrounded by technology, are inherently different from students ten to twenty years ago that sat in the same desks. The article argues that these students have different learning styles and that as educators it is our job to engage these students and to teach them based on their new learning style. The article discusses the effectiveness of bridging these gaps between Digital Natives and their teachers through the use of a wiki. “Wikis are incontestably a print-based technology, but they also encourage students to acknowledge and utilize the power of student-to-student interaction, community knowledge, and structure”(2007). The article discusses the use of wikis to create social interaction and to engage students in communicating through writing again. This reading really opened my ideas to the idea that wikis are not just tools, but instead might be part of the changing face of education, because we as educators need to catch up to our students technologically in order to effectively teach them in the classroom. I never considered the idea that Digital Natives had their own specific learning styles that are different from what has been traditionally discussed as a part of educational theory. It made me begin to think do we need to add a category to learning styles that addresses not only students who learn visually, spatially, kinesthetically, or aurally, but now students that learn through technology? I think this is the most interesting article I have come across in my search to become an “expert” in the wiki field. If you are interested in this topic the article also addresses the benefits of wikis, gives examples of using wikis in education, and talks about the issue of accuracy in wikis, which I discussed on a previous blog. All in all this is an excellent resource for educators interested in the topic.

Article: http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=258

Aha! Finally An Answer - At Least To One Question

I first looked at the Teacher First Website as a way to look at some interesting lessons on using a wiki in a multitude of subjects, but as I continued to explore the site I stumbled across something great- an answer to my question Why A Wiki? The first thing the site provides is a mini look into the world of theory and research that support why the wiki format would be beneficial for classroom use, and I mean mini look – only two sentences. But however short their examination was one sentence really stuck with me, “Build on the best of Bloom: Students use synthesis and evaluation constantly and consistently when they work on a wiki”. I thought this was a great point, because students can build connections between new and old information as well as evaluate and synthesize what they are working on through the wiki format. If used correctly I can definitely see how wiki could be a tool for students to compile and link their knowledge.
As a writing teacher, I also appreciated the emphasis on that wikis should be used to reinforce creativity and more importantly the idea that writing is never done. Because of the wikis open editable format students can continue to rewrite, revise, and edit their work as well as give comments, suggestions, and help to their classmates. I am currently using the wiki in my 8th grade English class, and I having students rewrite parts of Julius Caesar with a modern twist. They are learning how to read and interpret Shakespeare and also are learning how to apply the themes to a more modern context. A bonus from this project is that students have begun to see that they have the ability to continue to change the things from their rewrites that aren’t quite correct after we discuss them in class. The students really have enjoyed this project and have liked the idea that they can revise and help edit their other group members so easily. The Teacher First Website also focuses on this idea that for teaching writing this format makes the revision process a lot easier and more reflective. Students can help each other as well as edit their own work, but with the wiki I am using they are also e-mailed when something is changed on their wiki, so they can see and approve any corrections made by their group members.
I also thought that the Teacher First Website gives a great list of questions to ask yourself about your class and teaching style to determine whether or not using a wiki is for you and will work in your classroom. I am beginning to think the question should be why not wiki, instead of why wiki? I want to continue my examination of both questions and I think my next blog will be examining more concrete educational research on the topic, but for this week I think I have presented some very interesting articles and websites that lead me to believe wikis are worth incorporating into the curriculum as long as you do so with a solid plan and a clear goal about what you want your students to learn from the experience. So if you are interested in the wiki question or want some ideas of how to use a wiki in your classroom check out the Teacher First Website and all their information on wikis. They een have a great section on how to set-up your wiki including talking to parents and getting administrative approval.

Teacher First Website: Why A Wiki http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/whywiki.cfm

Teacher First Website: Wiki Ideas For the Classroom http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/wikiideas2.cfm

Continuing the Search

I am continuing my search to answer the question why use a wiki in education? As I was searching, I stumbled across an article from Time Magazine It's a Wiki, Wiki World by Chris Taylor. (Here is the link: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1066904-1,00.html) This interesting article is about the creator of Wikipedia. For everyone who hasn’t heard of this growing phenomenon, Wikipedia is a wiki encyclopedia that can be edited and added to by people from all over the world. The article outlines the interesting concept that more people are smarter together than a small group of elite. This is the concept that Wikipedia was founded on. The idea that if everyone in the world got together and created an online encyclopedia, it would be far more knowledgeable than any encyclopedias that are created by small groups of people is a different way of thinking about compiling information. I think this is an incredibly interesting concept, because you get very different and diverse perspectives on Wikipedia, because it is edited by so many different types of people. The problem though for educators is that if anyone can edit the encyclopedia than how do you know the information is correct. This is a problem they address in the article. The creator of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, seems to think this problem will solve itself, because the longer Wikipedia is in existence the more people will have an opportunity to edit it and to help make it accurate. However, this inaccuracy poses problems for educators. I recently was discussing with my librarian about making it a part of our library skills class to teach students how to identify good sources on the Internet, because so many of my students will use information off the Internet for projects that is not necessarily from a reliable source. I have begun to not let students use Wikipedia as a source for their papers and projects. I think this article was a great look however about how mainstream wikis have become and how successful this type of format really is. I am beginning to think about the usefulness of wikis in the classroom to create this type of collaborative environment. I saw an idea for having a wiki in which students work together to create a class study guide as they move throughout the semester, so they can use it as a review for the final exam. I thought this was an interesting way to apply the Wikipedia model to the classroom and could be a good reason to use wikis in the classroom, because they foster collaboration and also peer editing. I am going to continue to explore this question for my next posting.

Initial Exploration into the Wide World of Wikis

My first explorations into the wide world of wikis lead me to search for introductory materials that would answer basic questions like, what is a wiki? And why I should I use it in the classroom? The questions that I was asking and I know other teachers would want to discover the answers to before they would embark on their own trial of the wiki world. I discovered this great webquest that introduces teachers to what a wiki is, The 21st Century Classroom: Using Wikis
http://www.webquest.org/questgarden/lessons/34458-060902130930/index.htm. It places the teacher in the role of learner as they explore various wikis and learn how to edit and create a wiki of their own. I really liked the idea of using a webquest to teach teachers how to use a new form of technology, like a wiki. I think this is something that I could use as professional development in my school and it also might be a good tool to teach parents about wikis prior to their children using one in class. It provides several links to wikis as well as links to articles and blogs about using wikis in the classroom. This webquest definitely answered the first question I posed at the beginning of my exploration, what is a wiki? A wiki, which is derived from the Hawaiian word wiki wiki which means quick, and according to my investigation through the webquest a wiki is a website that allows visitors to add, remove, edit and change content. It also allows for linking among any number of pages. The other question I posed at the beginning of this exploration is a little more complicated to answer. Why should I use a wiki in the classroom? This question will take some further exploration. One answer I did find was a wiki can be helpful for classroom organization and dissemination of information. However, I have a feeling I can find some better answers to this question as I continue my exploration.

Let's Start Exploring

This blog will focus specifically on my exploration of how different forms of technology can enhance and improve teaching and learning. Part of the purpose of my blog is to provide a forum of discussion related to the readings and work done in the EME 5404 Instructional Computing II course at the University of Florida.

I am currently very interested in the use of the Internet in education. In my own classroom I have begun to incorporate blogs and wikis into students projects and discussions. I also am very interested in how these types of discussion forums can improve student understanding and more specifically improve how students express their knowledge and understanding of a topic. As an English teacher, I am constantly looking for ways to engage my students in meaningful writing and discussions of literary works, and I find that blogs and wikis give the students a new and interesting outlet. Throughout the next weeks I am going to examine blogs and wikis and their use in education.

I look forward to sharing my explorations and getting feedback on mu ideas and findings.