Wiki in School
(Picture Source: Jeffstanger)
Whereas many years ago the Internet was mainly used as a source of information, where users used the material provided by unknown authors rather passively, the "new" internet today encourages users to become authors themselves and to actively participate in the process. This is often referred to as 'Web 2.0' or 'Mitmachweb' as users become part of the development itself.
The most well know example of such active participation is probably 'Wikipedia', a website encouraging people from around the world to contribute their knowledge by writing, changing and editing articles. People, who have never met before produce articles together, correct each other and complement one another. But there is not only Wikipedia that encourages collaborative writing. In the course of time wikis have even been increasingly used in schools as well and there are many reasons for that. One is that wikis do not only support students' media competence but also their social skills as they encourage communication and cooperation. Secondly, it is a well-known fact that neither declarative nor procedural knowledge is simply a result of dealing with the input offered by the teacher, but rather the result of active construction and personal involvement. Therefore teachers should definitely work with wikis in school and not shy away from the technical challenges because they do not require any HTML or other programming skills at all.
However, if you are not familiar with it there are many websites that will help you setting up and using a wiki. Wikis can be used in numerous ways, either for projects in class, for virtual writing sessions, or even as a class wiki. So the possibilities are definitely there, now it is up to us as teachers to use them...or maybe not? What do you think? :-)
From Vivien
7 comments:
hi Vivien,
Love your examples! Great find! I am constantly amazed with the amount of information available on wikipedia, and I also contributed to the pop music section. Definitely agree with you that teachers should work with wiki, and the technology has advanced so much that you don't have to know programming to build website! Is a project built online better than a paper-based one?
In a way yes: the online version of a project lends itself to constant reworking and reshaping - thus your skill of revising should be improved (in order to reflect on one's learning process). Furthermore the idea is still that open formats should help "democratising" knowledge and enhance participation ... ideally i.e...
Hi Vivien,
I think it is great that you brought up wikipedia. I' m amazed about this tool as it has gained an important status world wide. The interesting point about it is the way people can participate, and as Andree said, rework information. In this sense, wikipedia is a source that goes with the time and is therefore up-to-date; well, at least ideally. This possibility of shaping, presenting and complementing information brings along a new experience, a collective responsibility.
I am also very amazed with the amount of information available on wikipedia. I couldn't even imagine not having access to it. Therefore I find it very short sighted and narrow-minded when teachers and even course instructors at University constantly emphasize that working with it is nonprofessional.Still, at least some course instructors see the immense potential!
Lena
This is a rather 'old' study showing that Wikipedia is as good as Britannica. Personally, I do find the stuff on popular culture is more important than academic stuff. I do research on pop music, and it is great that there are so many entries on Wikipedia for references. The interesting point is also about discipline. The way that entries are essentially monitored by other wiki users is an important ring to knowledge building.
http://news.cnet.com/Study-Wikipedia-as-accurate-as-Britannica/2100-1038_3-5997332.html
Even though I believe that Wikipedia articles shouldn't be trusted too much, I see them as an enormous source of potential. Our students use wikipedia anyway, if we as teachers like this or not. Most of them get information for presentations from it.
But we should pass this reception of information and have students question the sources of wikipedia entries and thereby judge their quality. As a different and more interesting approach students can be given the task to write an own wiki entry on a topic of their choice or try to change articles. By doing this they will develop a wider view on wikis and expand their picture of it as simply and online encyclopedia.
Nicole
I agree with Alice. The responsibility I talked about before includes discipline. And wikipedia definitively only works so well because of this. And right, the fact that other wiki users feel responsible for the content and have the discipline to do further research in case of dubious articles lacking evidence, highly assists the learning process of this users. However, we should not forget to check and read ourselfes the sources listed in wikiarticles when dealing more deeply with any topic.
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