These popular easy to add, remove and edit collaborative websites have served to benefit not only computer programmers but educators and librarians as well. With the added benefits of being able to track changes and see who has changed the information, being able to roll back and view previously developed pages, and that users don’t need to know the complexities of HTML, wikis have become THE collaborative tool. At its best, a wiki is a combination of a web site and a word document, while at its simplest it requires no access privileges and can be read just as one would read any other web page. A standard web browser since neither special software nor a third party webmaster is needed to post content, provides access to many wiki sites such as Pbwiki, WikiSpaces, WetPaint, and PikiWiki, where individuals and groups may begin creating their own wiki experience. Keeping track of copious numbers of files or Word documents is easily handled since once a version has been edited and saved in the wiki application, it is stored and can be returned to at any time, making it easy to compare versions of the same document side-by-side and it can be "rolled back" if necessary. By using multimedia plugins, videos and audio can be embedded with a few clicks. Tags, RSS feeds and full page revisions are possible in little time making wikis dynamic knowledge-building tools that increase content as they provide depth to an idea or topic. (Mindel and Verma, 2006) Because of these capabilities, wikis have been likened to “open, three dimensional Three Ring Binders” whereby expansion is next to infinite and organization may be rearranged or added to when new information is presented. Another such analogy is as “Fly Paper For Ideas”, the wiki becomes a catchment for all sorts of ideas related to one topic where all ideas are caught and held. Wikis are works in progress with immediate flow or no preconceived built-in hierarchy. (Mindel and Verma)
Increasingly wikis are being looked at by educators as an ideal tool for introducing and sustaining collaborative work between students and teachers. Students might use a wiki for collaborating on a group research or inquiry project, icebreaker exercises, knowledge management system experience, literature reviews, a living encyclopaedia about school learning communities, peer review of writing exercises, personal portfolios, signup sheets for intramural events, student journaling, study notes, book reviews, podcasts, reading, literacy and syndicating or aggregating web resources. Effectively, any class project with an encyclopaedic or bibliographic format, a handbook or textbook, or any project that does not require specific authorship is suitable for a wiki. Options for wiki use are endless.
Teachers could also make excellent use of wikis. From application of concepts to real-world scenarios used as examples of learning, how-to’s on technology or some other aspect of curriculum, collections of educational curriculum based readings and web sites, creating book lists for staff and students, a lesson plan collaboration site either intra-school or as a link to the district learning community, and a meeting repository site. Again, the options are endless.
Whenever information is shared among learners, wikis are useful tools of learning. They facilitate a cognitive information processing model of learning which stresses the importance of learning styles, an extension of the constructivist model. Because learners can choose which information is included and how to best present that information, the student is truly in control of learning and learning style. Should a team partner be in another location, team breakdown does not occur since Wikis affords team members the luxury of participating from remote locations and it can be worked on simultaneously by team members. Since wiki content is egoless, and timeless, all members may add and edit content. Wikis could influence students to work to the greater good of all team members as they enhance new cultural, leisure and sophisticated shared learning. Since the focus is usually on the wiki textual content, theoretically, student reasoning, writing, editing and collaborative skills should also be honed in the process. As long as students don’t simply employ the tactic of “I’ll do part 1, if you do part 2, and we’ll amalgamate them” the wiki environment should foster better skill development. If authors each present their own work on a distinctively different page from those of the team, then very little learning will take place and the students will likely be more focused on marks than an overall seamless presentation of ideas and content. Wikis could potentially aid immature writers since identification of textual input is not usually imposed, so the reader would not know who the author is. This is an added bonus since it reinforces that the whole team take part in every aspect of the wiki development while both writer and editor learn essential skills in a non-threatening environment. Having stated this, the success of the wiki depends on the maturity and motivation of the learners of the group as they collaborate in order to produce something of worth reflecting growth. This process makes assessment of wikis difficult but maybe the success of the project is in truly learning the content of a topic or project rather than reflecting a number on a mark sheet. In this instance, a case could be made by the teacher for a group grade with an individual metacognitive exercise which is also awarded marks. This would allow the greater mark to reflect what and how aspects of the learning were enhanced by any particular learner.
As I investigated numerous wikis, the ones I felt offered a great deal of information valuable to libraries were Wiki Booklists for Teens, with its easy to read format; Teach Library an information for lifelong literacy site which houses information on everything from “orientation to the library”, “encouraging reading and love of literature” to “social responsibility.” For those interested in developing textbooks, wiki books is an engaging information site including exam strategies for students while ESL learners and teachers would find simple wiki books useful since it is organized visually and textually thus making it accessible to not only ESL learners but anyone who is visually more adept. Teacher Librarian Wiki offers valuable lists and sites useful to librarians and teachers from elementary to high school. Although this site is arranged in very long pages of information which I find distracting and overwhelming as someone new to wikis, there is a wealth of information here. Teach Library covers significant information for teacher-librarians in a shorter less distracting format. It even appears that Google has also introduced a competitor to Wikipedia: Knol which includes a visual and textual category list plus a search box at the top. I think it has much to add in order to catch up to Wikepedia.
To my knowledge, wikis have not been used much in the high school setting yet there appears to be no good reason for this. I know that teachers feel an increasing demand of time on curriculum but are we serving our students by not introducing them to wikis? It is my plan to introduce wiki technology to the teachers at a PD event in order to access enough time for them to become comfortable with some of the aspects and values of wikis. I would like to address its use for projects such as the social studies vocabulary and chapter review lists, group history projects as an optional choice to Power Point, the study of a novel in English class where students must build visual and textual information, and in science a biomes project, to name a few. I think that a good introduction might occur by using the wiki application to record minutes for our technology meetings. This could be made public for all teachers to view and seek out information rather than attempting to locate emails or other such documents. It goes without saying that before I present this information to teachers and students, I will be “playing” with my own wiki to add information and next to invite other staff to add, edit and enhance it. Rather than transmitting knowledge, wikis work best when learning is shared. I look forward to experiencing and learning with peers in the Wonderful World of Wikis.
My Wiki Space Address http://wikiforeducation.wikispaces.com/
References:
Bowllan, A (2008, 01, 09). A Wiki Gives a Book New Life. School Library Journal, Retrieved July 24, 2009, from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6590061.html
Mindel, J and Verma, S(2006). WIKIS FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING. Communications of the Association for Information Systems,, Volume 18, 2006), 1-23, Retrieved July 25, 2009, from http://cais.aisnet.org/articles/18-1/default.asp?View=Journal&x=62&y=11
S, J (2007, 02, 19). Learn about wikis and discover some innovative ways that libraries are using them. Retrieved July 26, 2009, from School Library Learning 2.0 Web site: http://schoollibrarylearning2.blogspot.com/2007/02/16-week-7-learn-about-wikis-and.html
Rosenfeld, E and Loertscher, D (2007). Info Tech: An Inf0-Skills Workout: Wikis and Collaborative Writing, in Toward a 21st Century School Librariy Media Program. Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecros Press, Inc.
“Ward Cunnungham”, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 25, July 2009, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 10 Aug. 2004. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_Cunningham
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