It's Wiki Week

What better way to shake off the post-Olympic blah's than to learn about and use another Web 2.0 tool. Okay... I admit it's not quite as exciting and full of speed and intensity as the WInter Olympics were but life goes on and it will have to do. This week tool is the wiki, which is a Hawaiian word meaning "fast".

Before I get too deep in the wiki world, a formal definition of a wiki is in order. Wikis are websites that allow their users to create and edit content and all wikis include the ability for editing by more than one person, either website members or those from the general public (Grant, 2008). The fast aspect of wikis is referring to the ease by which information can be added to or edited within a wiki. Why are they so popular? The knowledge of many is a strong elixir. The belief in "the 'wisdom of crowds' [states] that the collective knowledge of a large group can be greater than that of an individual, even if that individual is an expert" (Surowiecki, as cited by Grant, 2009). This "collective intelligence" (Grant, p. 107) is held in a high regard by many I believe and it can be proven by the growth and popularity of wikipedia itself.

Contrary to some of the previous tools I have learned in this course, I have used a wiki in the past, although my experience with it was fairly simplified. My last school used a wiki to organize everything you could ever want to know about the school. Need to know report card deadlines and procedures? Check the wiki. Going on a field trip? Check the wiki for forms and procedures. Need the program of studies or other online resources? Well... check the wiki. Was the wiki useful? Usually it was. Unfortunately, the wiki was so large and their were so many headings and pages that I often didn't know where to look in order to find what I needed. I found it counterproductive (and annoying) to have to ask an administrator where in the wiki I could find what I was looking for. This particular wiki tended not to be a collaborative project that everyone could take part in but rather a place for pertinent information to be stored for future consideration.

The Learning Process

The learning process for me was a four-part endeavour. First, course texts provided a fairly good introduction to wikis although I found Davies and Merchant's (2009) text spent too much time relating the discussion to Wikipedia, the world's most popular and most well-known wiki. Richardson (2009) I felt did a better job of introducing wikis and wikipedia while still spending a good amount of time discussing the use of wikis in schools. He also provided some examples of wikis currently used by teachers. Richardson also points out that the wiki platform WetPaint allows the teacher to track the participation of his/her students participation in the editing process. A great tool indeed!

Secondly, there are many scholarly articles available that discuss the uses for and benefits of wikis in an educational setting. Schweder & Wissick's "The Power of Wikis" (2009) is a concisely written article that organizes the uses of wikis into four specific categories: collaboration, sharing, organization, and instruction. Lyndsay Grant's article "I DON'T CARE DO UR OWN PAGE! A case study of using wikis for collaborative work in a UK secondary school" discusses not only the wisdom behind the wiki concept but also points out some obstacles that may prevent wikis from being as useful as many people think. This two-sided research was refreshing as all of my other readings to date have been very positive and rah! rah! without commenting on the potential barriers to implementation in the classroom. More on her findings later.

Thirdly, tutorials within two common wiki platforms also provided me with some great information albeit related to creating my wiki. I signed up with two wiki providers, PBwiki and Wikispaces. Both offered tutorials regarding the aspects of wiki creation, development, and editing etc. and I wanted to try both to get a feel for the one that was the right fit for me (sorry Wetpaint, maybe another time).

Playing around and developing my wiki was the last part of the learning process. I started with PBwiki first and I found it fairly easy to create different pages but the adding content part did not come as easy as I would have liked. Wikispaces was more user friendly for me and not only is it easy to create and link pages but the adding of content seemed much easier as well. I credit the look and set-up of Wikispaces for this as well as its great tutorials.
I decided to create a new wiki rather than tinker with an existing one. Why? I wanted to experience the creation and editing process so that I could do both in the future. Check out my wiki here.


My Personal Learning

What could I see myself or my family using a wiki for? Well, I think a wiki would be a great resource for planning a vacation. Many of our vacations in the past have been with other families and while they have all been enjoyable experiences, the planning part has often been... awkward. Let's face it, different people have different tastes and often it is tough finding activities, choosing lodging, flights etc that everyone can agree on. The usual scenario involves emails flying back and forth and the process tends to be long and drawn out. A wiki would be a great place for all parties involved to share information about attractions, transportation, lodging, shopping... whatever. If links were provided then everyone could check out each suggestion which I believe would lead to a much easier time organizing the overall trip. A schedule of activities could also be created on the wiki to take the chosen activities and place them into various time slots if desired. Personally I see great potential for wikis as sharing and collaboration tools.

Another great use on a personal level would be the creation of a house wiki. I tend to be the one that fixes broken things or makes the call to someone to have something fixed. This is fine unless something goes wrong when I'm not home. My house wiki would be a great place to not only list important activities (i.e change furnace filter, have furnace inspected, clean eaves troughs, clean & check smoke detectors etc) but to also list help numbers (i.e plumber, electrical, insurance etc.) if there are serious problems.

Having created a wiki this week has given me the confidence and knowledge to create another one again!


Wikis and Teaching & Learning

From all my reading and research, it is apparent that wikis are becoming more and more popular in the classroom. What can they be used for? I'll share with you a list of possibilities put together by Schweder & Wissick (2009) that I think outlines the most common uses:
1. Collaboration. Wikis allow for collaboration amongst students, and/or teachers, and even parents at a time that is convenient for everyone. Everyone who contributes has ownership and thus is more involved in the project. Other possible collaboration scenarios include curricular planning and professional development. For teachers who have not used wikis before, experiencing wikis with colleagues would be a non-threatening way to learn about them prior to introducing them in the classroom.
2. Sharing. Regarding PD, how many of us have viewed a powerpoint slide show during a PD presentation? Most of us I'm sure. The thing about this type of presentation is that information tends to travel in only one direction. What if the same presentation was given using a wiki and those in attendance were asked (even told) that they had to add to the wiki? Information (i.e resources) could be added or edited immediately to improve the overall presentation. I could see a more engaged, active and lively PD session because of this.
3. Organization. A wiki would be a great way to organize content. Rather than bookmarking websites, add the link to your wiki. Because the editing process is so easy, links can be added or deleted with ease and others can add their favourites as well.
4. Instruction. Assignments, reminders, study tips, review materials could all be included in a wiki. Students could partake and also add their own materials to the wiki.

As I mentioned earlier, most of the materials I read outlined only the positive aspects of wikis but I think their are some forces at work that hinder the effectiveness of wikis and these forces need to be understood and dealt with by teachers that plan to use wikis. Grant (2009) points out two areas of concern in this regard.

First, students in her study often did not see the ability to edit others students work as helpful or even desirable (p. 110). A number of students chose to focus on their own work rather that editing someone else's. This rejection of collaboration was based on feelings of individuality and that fact that someone who did edit another persons work was seen as "trespassing in someone else's territory" (Grant, p. 111). Bruns and Humphreys (as cited in Grant, p. 113) state: "If truly collaborative work is the goal... then the reluctance to critically evaluate and learn how to provide constructive critique to peers must be over come".

The second area of concern that Grant points out is the level of involvement by the teacher in the classroom. Teachers must not simply take a back seat to learning with wikis or other web 2.0 tools, rather they must show their students how to participate and collaborate in the classroom. Independent learning does not equate to minimal teacher involvement in this regard and thus teachers must take on an active and significant role in this process.


References

Commoncraft tutorial retrieved from http://commoncraft.com/video-wikis-plain-english

Davies, J., Merchant, G. (2009) Web 2.0 for Schools. Peter Lang Publishing Inc., New York

Grant, L. (2009) I DON'T CARE DO UR OWN PAGE! A case study of using wikis for collaborative work in a UK secondary school. Learning, Media and Technology, 34: 2, p. 105-117

Richardson, Will. (2009) Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and OtherPowerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Corwin Press

Schweder, W., Wissick, C. (2009) The Power of Wikis. Journal of Special Education Technology, Vol. 24, No. 1, p. 57-60

Wikispaces Help retrieved from http://www.wikispaces.com/site/tour