Fostering Collaboration in the Wikified Course

1. Fostering Collaboration in the Wikified Course Dr. Jay L. Gordon Department of English

2. What is a wikified course? A course into which a wiki is integrated.

3. What is a wiki?

4. How do you set up a course wiki? • By hand, using software (e.g., Tikiwiki) • Hard to do for novice • Using a Wiki-building service (e.g., PBWorks) • Easier for novice Wikis are not necessary, but they can be useful.

5. What can you do with a wiki? Non-collaborative • Post course materials • Provide drop-boxes Collaborative • “Trading post” for drafts • Common workspace • Comments on any page

6. Wiki “Epistemology” From Ruth & Houghton, “The Wiki Way of Learning,” Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 2009, 25(2): 135-152 • collaboration – individuals acting together to develop shared knowledge; • construction/co-construction – individuals acting together to produce knowledge and their products (in flux); • 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 toward constructionism.

7. Example 1: Trading Post

8. Example 2a: Common Workspace

9. Example 2b: Common Workspace

10. Example 3: Comments on any page

11. The Editing Screen

12. Security Security customizable for all “pages,” “folders”

13. Searchability The whole wiki is searchable SEARCH HERE

14. Research findings • “[S]tudent engagement, but not performance on assessment, may be enhanced when a wiki is used to support learning in higher education.” Neumann & Hood (2009) • “[F]aculty and students [at Athens State] have met with great success using wikis to support group project work, produce electronic portfolios, develop a course bibliography, and create repositories of instructions for use of instructional technologies.” Rich et al (2009) • “Students' reflections indicate that contributing to the class wiki led to a deeper processing of the course content and was personally beneficial to the students in spite of persistent technology challenges.” Matthew et al (2009)

15. Some tips for newbies From Morgan & Smith, “A Wiki for Classroom Writing,” The Reading Teacher 62(1): 80-82. • Wikis are nearly bulletproof. • Create a playground page where you and your students can experiment with the wiki. • Plan the structure of your wiki. • The core Wiki principle is collaboration.

16. Sources Engstrom, Mary E. and Jewett, Dusty (2005). “Collaborative Learning the Wiki Way.” TechTrends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning 49(6): 12-15, 68. Kasemvilas, Sumonta and Olfman, Lorne (2009). “Design Alternatives for a MediaWiki to Support Collaborative Writing in Higher Education Classes.” Issues in Informing Science & Information Technology 6: 45-64. Matthew, Kathryn; Felvegi, Emese and Callaway, Rebecca. “Wiki as a Collaborative Learning Tool in a Language Arts Methods Class.” Journal of Research on Technology in Education 42(1): p51-72. Neumann, David L. and Hood, Michelle (2009). “The Effects of Using a Wiki on Student Engagement and Learning of Report Writing Skills in a University Statistics Course.” Australasian Journal of Educational Technology 25(3): 382-398. Rich, Lisa Logan; Cowan, Wendy and Herring, Susan D (2009). “Collaborate, Engage, and Interact in Online Learning: Successes with Wikis and Synchronous Virtual Classrooms at Athens State.” Paper presented at the Annual Instructional Technology Conference. Ruth, Alison and Houghton, Luke (2009). “The Wiki Way of Learning.” Australasian Journal of Educational Technology 25 (2): 135-152.

17. Sample sites Mine: http://jaylgordon.pbworks.com/ Chris Werry, SDSU http://sdsuwriting.pbworks.com/ Blackboard analysis