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