A wiki is defined (on dictionary.com) as "a Web site that allows anyone to add, delete, or revise content by using a web browser." One of the most popular versions of a wiki is the website wikipedia.org which is basically a database containing detailed information and historical facts about any topic that someone wishes to start - from there others can then add information and citations as well. This week our web-based learning class of 20 students contributed to a class wiki on the topic of "Digital Literacy", and here is my personal response to this experience as well as my opinion on the advantages and disadvantages of using it in the classroom!
I think that creating a group wiki on one topic is a really great way to get the whole class involved in becoming ‘experts’ in defining one area of study. I think that this could very easily be used in a classroom as a way to continually develop ideas throughout a unit of study in order to have one unified chunk of cited information to help with studying later on. It is nice that a wiki can continue to be edited and changed, so as a class you could begin by randomly finding basic information about the topic, and then as the unit continues you could tweak the wiki for errors and decide which original sources were actually valid. It is also nice that a wiki will have lots of good resources cited throughout it and websites on the related topic so that you can get further information if needed. It is a good activity as a classroom community builder because the whole class has to work together to complete the one document, and you can see how impressive the document is once everyone has worked together. I think that it is a good system because it rewards the “keen” students who do their work early because they have the first picks in what to say and can state the most basic or obvious information (therefore making the assignment easier for those students).
Although there are lots of positive aspects to using a class wiki, I also found it to be a fairly difficult thing to contribute towards. One of the main difficulties with wiki that I noticed was that if you weren’t one of the first people to post, then it seemed hard to find original information that wasn’t repetitive from the earlier information. I think that you would have to be very strategic in picking a wiki topic because there are some topics that would just be too narrow for students to keep finding relevant information about. In the case where a topic doesn’t have much research behind it, it would run the risk of maybe causing classes to get off topic or find “far-stretched” sources just to say that they contributed to the wiki, therefore potentially altering the authenticity of your document. On the other hand, it might encourage students to think outside-the-box and find other related ways to approach the topic as well. Also, I think that some students would really struggle with how to find sources and properly cite them without just copy-and-pasting information that they find. Another struggle with wikis is that they can tend to have choppy transitions and sound incoherent because of the constant topic changes and from the change in different writing styles. If a wiki starts getting really long and students are trying to reach a deadline, they might also just start posting their stuff where it seems to work without really reading the whole document to see if this has already been cited. Similarly, if it is getting long they might not consider if it is the most logical place to put that piece of information or if it is interrupting the sequence or flow of a point that another author was trying to put across. In order for a class wiki to be used in secondary classroom, I think that you would also have to have a word/ picture limit per student in order to make sure that the class is contributing equally instead of some people posting most of the information and other students hardly contributing. Kids would also have to have an understanding that they are not supposed to alter anyone else’s information, and to be respectful of the information that other people have posted – for example maybe don’t cut their information in half by adding in your own bit or don’t get offended if someone does add to your piece of information, etc. (in other words teaching them some digital literacy skills!) Also in the above situation, you would need to have some way to mark the wiki by bringing in what each individual has actually written – most likely by submitting a copy of their section to the teacher as we did. It was a good exercise in the end, and it was neat to see what other ways people would find to expand on the same topic. I think that it would be worth trying out in my own classroom someday!
I think that creating a group wiki on one topic is a really great way to get the whole class involved in becoming ‘experts’ in defining one area of study. I think that this could very easily be used in a classroom as a way to continually develop ideas throughout a unit of study in order to have one unified chunk of cited information to help with studying later on. It is nice that a wiki can continue to be edited and changed, so as a class you could begin by randomly finding basic information about the topic, and then as the unit continues you could tweak the wiki for errors and decide which original sources were actually valid. It is also nice that a wiki will have lots of good resources cited throughout it and websites on the related topic so that you can get further information if needed. It is a good activity as a classroom community builder because the whole class has to work together to complete the one document, and you can see how impressive the document is once everyone has worked together. I think that it is a good system because it rewards the “keen” students who do their work early because they have the first picks in what to say and can state the most basic or obvious information (therefore making the assignment easier for those students).
Although there are lots of positive aspects to using a class wiki, I also found it to be a fairly difficult thing to contribute towards. One of the main difficulties with wiki that I noticed was that if you weren’t one of the first people to post, then it seemed hard to find original information that wasn’t repetitive from the earlier information. I think that you would have to be very strategic in picking a wiki topic because there are some topics that would just be too narrow for students to keep finding relevant information about. In the case where a topic doesn’t have much research behind it, it would run the risk of maybe causing classes to get off topic or find “far-stretched” sources just to say that they contributed to the wiki, therefore potentially altering the authenticity of your document. On the other hand, it might encourage students to think outside-the-box and find other related ways to approach the topic as well. Also, I think that some students would really struggle with how to find sources and properly cite them without just copy-and-pasting information that they find. Another struggle with wikis is that they can tend to have choppy transitions and sound incoherent because of the constant topic changes and from the change in different writing styles. If a wiki starts getting really long and students are trying to reach a deadline, they might also just start posting their stuff where it seems to work without really reading the whole document to see if this has already been cited. Similarly, if it is getting long they might not consider if it is the most logical place to put that piece of information or if it is interrupting the sequence or flow of a point that another author was trying to put across. In order for a class wiki to be used in secondary classroom, I think that you would also have to have a word/ picture limit per student in order to make sure that the class is contributing equally instead of some people posting most of the information and other students hardly contributing. Kids would also have to have an understanding that they are not supposed to alter anyone else’s information, and to be respectful of the information that other people have posted – for example maybe don’t cut their information in half by adding in your own bit or don’t get offended if someone does add to your piece of information, etc. (in other words teaching them some digital literacy skills!) Also in the above situation, you would need to have some way to mark the wiki by bringing in what each individual has actually written – most likely by submitting a copy of their section to the teacher as we did. It was a good exercise in the end, and it was neat to see what other ways people would find to expand on the same topic. I think that it would be worth trying out in my own classroom someday!