Overview
A wiki is simply a website on which users can easily create and edit web pages and edit the content (text, images, hyperlinks etc.) on those pages. They are good for group and project work where students are asked to work together to plan, develop or present their work. In an educational setting, access to view and edit the wiki is usually restricted to only the learners involved in the project, but they can be made available for the whole world to see and contribute to.
One of the main features of a wiki is that there isn’t a predetermined structure. With an open architecture, as pages are created, populated and linked together, structure emerges as a result of user participation. This enables users to edit and control the organisation of the entire wiki, not just the content of individual pages.
Another feature is that users can edit/delete each other’s work. But don’t worry, a chronological history of page changes can be seen, you can see who changed what and it’s possible to revert to previous page versions if needed. This means it is easy to see who has done what within a group, so it is easy to see which students have contributed (or not!).
Benefits of wikis to learners
- Ability to collaborate textually while creating rich content.
- Enable participants to benefit from group knowledge and interactions, where the knowledge of the group is greater than the individual.
- Learners who are shy or face other problems in face to face environments may flourish in an online written environment (e.g. international students)
- Develop higher order thinking skills (see Bloom’s taxonomy) such as the ability to create and evaluate.
- Appropriation – the ability to meaningfully sample and remix media content
- Multitasking – the ability to scan one’s environment and shift focus as needed to salient details
- Distributed cognition – the ability to interact meaningfully with tools that expand mental capacities
- Judgement – the ability to evaluate the reliability and credibility of different information sources
- Networking – the ability to search for, synthesize and disseminate information
- Negotiation – the ability to travel across diverse communities, discerning and respecting multiple perspectives and grasping and following alternative norms.
(Source: ‘Confronting the challenge of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st Century‘)
Getting started
Blackboard wikis
The Blackboard wiki tool is useful for teaching staff who wish to remain within the Blackboard environment.
Good practice
Ways to use wikis
- Group (asynchronous text-based) discussion – presenting, discussing and developing ideas and content.
- Collaborative writing tool – for group writing, drafting and reviewing of model essays, reports and summaries.
- Problem Based Learning – learners add content to the wiki as they investigate and respond to a real-world problem.
- Disseminating information – develop content to inform others, e.g. this wiki is used to provide information on using Open Educational Resources in STEM subjects.
- Group knowledge repository – learners develop guides, encyclopaedias, handbooks and instructions, e.g. for current and/or future cohorts.
- Manage meetings and events – organise roles and responsibilities, draft agendas and programmes, record attendees, write and archive minutes and reports, collate resources, take and record decisions.
- Group projects – learners respond to a project outline by developing content on a number of interlinked pages.
- Project knowledge management – sharing of ideas, coordination of activities, collaboratively authored task lists, resources, milestones, plans, and status reports.
- Resource aggregation – group creation of glossary, annotated bibliography, useful links, and video gallery.
- Community of practice space – gathering, brainstorming, discussing and sharing ideas, approaches and resources.
Learner-centred pedagogy
‘Learner-centered teaching shifts the responsibility for learning to the students and away from the teacher — when instruction is learner-centered the focus is on what students, not teachers, are doing.’
Saulnier (2008) ‘From “Sage on Stage” to “Guide on the Side” revisited’.
‘Students learn by incorporating understanding of the subject into their existing knowledge base, and so must take an active role rather than being passively taught. The professor’s job is therefore to facilitate learning rather than lecture.’
King, (1993) ‘From Sage on Stage to Guide on the Side’.
‘The wiki epistemology therefore has several important characteristics:
- collaboration – individuals acting together to develop shared knowledge;
- construction/co-construction – individuals acting together to produce knowledge and their products;
- different ways of learning – individuals acting together as equals – sometimes an expert, sometimes a novice, rather than in competition;
- the authority of ‘the’ expert is undermined; and a different philosophical underpinning which is more oriented towards constructionism.’
‘Wiki pedagogy thus entails the following dimensions:
- opportunities to develop competency in the skills required through an apprentice style beginning; an open framework of (inter)disciplinary knowledge;
- multiple pathways for entering, learning and building the wiki content;
- recognition that it is never finished;
- understanding and accepting both competition and collaboration/cooperation; and emphasising the potential for perspective shifts.’
Ruth & Houghton, (2009) ‘The wiki way of learning’.
‘Many users of learning management systems [e.g. Blackboard or Moodle] focus on delivery of prepackaged ‘knowledge’ to be acquired by the student. Some or even many users rarely allow interaction between students and between students and teachers, and rarely employ options that are available for providing interaction ‘spaces’. Where they do, it is separate from content. Wikis, on the other hand, shift the focus to construction of knowledge, rather than presentation of information, often giving students an active role in the formation of knowledge’
Ruth & Houghton, 2009.
‘Wiki collaboration can be seen as an ongoing conversation as students constantly update pages based on interactions in face to face sessions, research online and reflecting on the work of their peers and the teaching team. These interactions potentially deepen the level of intersubjectivity or shared understanding (Wertsch, 1998) achieved in the course. This was demonstrated through student reflections.’
Ruth & Houghton, 2009.
Support
Contact Oliver Haslam in the DLS in CATE team if you are interested in using wikis in your teaching, or go to the Blackboard Help pages for more information.
Further reading
Deters, F., Cuthrell, K., & Stapleton, J. (2010). Why Wikis? Student Perceptions of Using Wikis in Online Coursework. Journal of Online Learning and Teaching (JOLT), 6(1).
Judd,T., Kennedy,G., & Cropper,S. (2010). Using wikis for collaborative learning: Assessing collaboration through contribution. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology. 26(3), 341-354.
McIntosh, C., & Weaver, D. (2008). Fostering collaboration amongst off-campus students. Paper presented at the Hello! Where are you in the landscape of educational technology?, Melbourne.
Parker, K. R., & Chao, J. T. (2007). Wiki as a Teaching Tool. Interdisciplinary Journal of Knowledge and Learning Objects, 3, 57-72.
Ruth, A. & Houghton, L. (2009) The wiki way of learning. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology. 25(2), 135-152.
Weaver D. & McIntosh, C (2009). Providing Feedback on Collaboration and Teamwork Amongst Off-Campus Students. In C. Fulford & G. Siemens (Eds.) EdMedia 2009 – World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications, Hawaii, USA June 2009, 2070-2079.
Weaver, D., Viper, S., Latter, J., & McIntosh, P. C. (2010). Off campus students’ experiences collaborating online, using wikis. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 26(6), 847-860.