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Interdisciplinary Journal of Knowledge and Learning Objects Volume 3, 2007 Editor: Alex Koohang Wiki as a Teaching Tool Kevin R. Parker Idaho State University Pocatello, Idaho, USA parkerkr@isu.edu Joseph T. Chao Bowling Green State University Bowling Green, Ohio, USA jchao@bgsu.edu Abstract Wikis are one of many Web 2.0 components that can be used to enhance the learning process. A wiki is a web communication and collaboration tool that can be used to engage students in learning with others within a collaborative environment. This paper explains wiki usage, investigates its contribution to various learning paradigms, examines the current literature on wiki use in education, and suggests additional uses in teaching software engineering. Keywords: wiki, Web 2.0, collaborative learning, information and communication technologies, computer-mediated communication, e-learning, pedagogy, education, constructivism. Introduction Wiki is a major component of Web 2.0, the emergent generation of web tools and applications (Adie, 2006). Web 2.0 has the potential to complement, enhance, and add new collaborative dimensions to the classroom. Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs, wikis, podcasts, and RSS feeds have been dubbed 'social software' because they are perceived as being especially connected, allowing users to develop Web content collaboratively and open to the public (Alexander, 2006). Social software offers a variety of unique and powerful information sharing and collaboration features, acting as cognitive reflection and amplification tools, and aiding the construction of meaning through the act of self-design of knowledge databases (Jonassen, Peck, & Wilson, 1999). Wikis in particular actively involve learners in their own construction of knowledge (Boulos, Maramba, & Wheeler, 2006). Social software helps to realize the original vision of the Web as a space in which anyone can participate (Schaffert, Gruber, & Westenthaler, 2006). Web 2.0 tools are characterized by ease of use and rapidity of deployment, making possible powerful information sharing and straightforward collaboration (Boulos et al., 2006). Further, these tools afford the added advantage of reducing the technical skill required to use their features, allowing users to focus on the information exchange and collaborative tasks themselves without the distraction of a difficult technological environment (Kirkpatrick, 2006). Such 'transparent technologies' (Wheeler, Kelly, & Gale, 2005) let the user concentrate more on the learning task by 'seeing through' the technology with which they are interacting. The term 'wiki' is derived from the Hawaiian phrase, wiki-wiki, which means quick. A wiki is a collaborative web site whose content can be edited by visitors to the site, allowing users to easily cre- Material published as part of this publication, either on-line or in print, is copyrighted by the Informing Science Institute. Permission to make digital or paper copy of part or all of these works for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that the copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage AND that copies 1) bear this notice in full and 2) give the full citation on the first page. It is permissible to abstract these works so long as credit is given. To copy in all other cases or to republish or to post on a server or to redistribute to lists requires specific permission and payment of a fee. Contact Publisher@InformingScience.org to request redistribution permission. Wiki as a Teaching Tool 58 ate and edit web pages collaboratively (Chao, 2007). In essence, a wiki is a simplification of the process of creating HTML web pages in combination with a system that records each individual change that occurs over time, so that at any time a page can be forced to revert to any of its previous states. A wiki may also provide tools that allow the user community to monitor the constantly changing state of the wiki and discuss the issues that emerge. Some wikis restrict access to a group of members, allowing only members to edit page content although everyone may view it. Others allow completely unrestricted access, allowing anyone to both edit and view content (Olson, 2006). Wikis can be used as a source of information and knowledge, as well as a tool for collaborative authoring. Wikis allow visitors to engage in dialog and share information among participants in group projects, or to engage in learning with each other by using wikis as a collaborative environment in which to construct their knowledge (Boulos et al., 2006). This paper will focus on the use of wikis in the classroom, beginning with a brief look at learning approaches that can be furthered through wikis, followed by a review of the current state of wiki use in education. It will then consider additional uses of wikis in education, and conclude with a discussion of appropriate uses of wikis rather than blogs. Approaches to Learning Many of the papers that deal with wikis in education indicate how a wiki supports a particular approach to learning. The most commonly listed learning paradigms are the cooperative/ collaborative learning paradigm and the constructivist paradigm, although others are referenced. Cooperative/Collaborative Paradigm As noted, wikis are characterized by a variety of unique and powerful information sharing and collaboration features. In cooperative learning, students work in heterogeneous groups to support the learning of their individual members. Cooperative learning leads to positive interdependence of group members, individual accountability, face-to-face interaction, and appropriate use of collaborative skills (Schaffert, Bischof, et al., 2006). Cooperative teams achieve higher levels of thought and retain information longer than students who do their work individually (Johnson and Johnson, 1986). The collaborative features of wikis make them particularly well suited for cooperative learning environments (Schaffert, Bischof, et al., 2006). Wikis can be used to facilitate computer-supported collaborative learning, i.e., the development of collaboration by means of technology to augment education and research (Augar, Raitman, & Zhou, 2004). This enhances peer interaction and group work, and facilitates sharing and distributing knowledge and expertise among a community of learners (Lipponen, 2002). Wikis enhance asynchronous communication and cooperative learning among students, and promote cooperation rather than competition (De Pedro et al., 2006). Collaborative learning becomes even more powerful when it takes place in the context of a community of practice. A community of practice consists of people engaged in collective learning in a shared domain. Thus, learning becomes a collaborative process of a group. Wikis can serve as a knowledge platform for a community of practice where members of the community can share their knowledge with the group, put up interesting pieces of information, work together, discuss issues, etc. (Schaffert, Bischof, et al., 2006). Wikis are characterized by some of the elements fundamental to a successful community of practice, including a virtual presence, a variety of interactions, easy participation, valuable content, connections to a broader subject field, personal and community identity and interaction, democratic participation, and evolution over time (Schwartz, Clark, Cossarin, & Rudolph, 2004). Parker & Chao 59 Constructivist Paradigm Constructivism sees knowledge as well as meaning as constructed rather than given. Constructivism itself does not suggest a particular pedagogy, but rather describes how learning happens. Miers (2004) provides a fine summary of constructivism: [C]onstructivist learning should engage students in meaningful learning and ... the critical features are that the learning should be... • Active and manipulative, engaging students in interactions and explorations with learning materials and provid[ing] opportunities for them to observe the results of their manipulations • Constructive and reflective, enabling students to integrate new ideas with prior knowledge to make meaning and enable learning through reflection • Intentional, providing opportunities for students to articulate their learning goals and monitor their progress in achieving them • Authentic, challenging and real-world (or simulated), facilitating better understanding and transfer of learning to new situations • Cooperative, collaborative, and conversational, providing students with opportunities to interact with each other to clarify and share ideas, to seek assistance, to negotiate problems, and discuss solutions. (p. 4) In recent years, those involved in online learning have had a growing awareness of the benefits of constructivist online learning environments (Seitzinger, 2006). Hence, the recent interest in wikis in education. Constructivism is approached from a variety of perspectives in wiki research, including reflective activity and communal or social constructivism. Reflective learning, one of the critical features of constructivism, refers to structured approaches that enable students to reflect upon their learning and to understand their own learning processes. Wikis are playing an increasing role in students’ reflective learning, and enrich students’ experience “beyond the mere contingent and often ephemeral details of each project, overlayering this experience with a more general and overarching, personally-constructed viewpoint on design processes, on how we experience and create the designed world in which each person lives — and a conceptual framework that will enable them to quickly develop their understanding further” (Chen et al., 2005). Wikis allow learners to participate in collaboratively building resources. An essential part of reflective learning is that learners should be encouraged to reflect on their knowledge and make it explicit. Wikis allow this reflection to be done collaboratively, moving closer to a fully social constructivist mode of learning. Because of their very low technological barriers yet very rich and flexible functionality, wikis afford the opportunity to offer collaborative, constructive learning more extensively in our educational environments (McMullin, 2005). Social constructivists believe that we learn by social and communal activities. Meaning is shaped and knowledge constructed through discussion with peers and teachers, and through reflection (Higgs and McCarthy, 2005). The collaborative nature of wikis means that they enact knowledge building with and for others, with the focus being on the community rather than on the individual learner. Wikis are one of the success stories in the world of social constructivism since they can be rapidly deployed and students can be very quickly operational (Notari, 2003). Other Approaches There are additional approaches to learning that are addressed in wiki literature. Yukawa (2005) examines the use of wikis in narrative analysis, which uses both text and online talk to construct a Wiki as a Teaching Tool 60 holistic view of the learning experience involving cognition, affect, and interaction. Schaffert, Bischof, et al. (2006) discuss many learning approaches, including cognitive apprenticeship, which is based on the knowledge and skill transfer in the traditional master-apprentice education. The collaborative aspect of wikis allows teachers and students to work closely together on a topic, e.g., writing a text or article, collecting information on a topic, etc., regardless of the whereabouts of students and teachers. In a broad sense, a wiki can be considered a learning object if it contains an educational purpose (Nash, 2005). Current State of Wikis in Education Although the wiki was introduced more than ten years ago, its use is relatively new in academia (Chao, 2007; Evans, 2006; Schaffert, Bischof, et al., 2006). Higher education has only recently begun to explore the potential educational value of wikis as a means to promote deeper learning and integration of learning experiences from both inside the classroom and out (Chen et al., 2005). Despite their potential impact on business, the wiki phenomenon, by and large, has not yet made it to the classroom, either as a research topic or as a teaching method (Evans, 2006). However, the popularity of wikis has begun to attract the attention of educators, who expect that wikis will facilitate not only communication but also the collaborative finding, shaping, and sharing of knowledge, all of which are essential properties in an educational context (Reinhold, 2006). As a consequence, papers related to wiki use in education have finally begun to appear in recent years. A literature search reveals the current state of the wiki education. There are a variety of applications, primarily in writing assignments, group projects, and online/distance education, although innovative uses in other areas can be found as well. Lists of Uses There are several papers that, among their discussion of wikis, present a list of uses for wikis in the classroom, along with a discussion of each in most cases. Mader’s site (2006b) focuses solely on wikis in education, citing uses such as simple webpage creation, project development with peer review, group authoring, tracking group projects, data collection, and class/instructor reviews. His online text (Mader, 2006a) contains writings by several authors discussing such topics as integrating a wiki in instruction, collaborative writing projects, group wiki projects, using wikis within course management systems, constructing science knowledge, and wiki-based collaboration and academic publishing. Fountain (2005) presents a survey of wiki use in education, and suggests several additional uses of wikis. Co-creating and co-monitoring projects are discussed, as is collaborative concept elaboration. Duffy and Bruns (2006) list several possible educational uses of wikis: • Students can use a wiki to develop research projects, with the wiki serving as ongoing documentation of their work. • Students can add summaries of their thoughts from the prescribed readings, building a collaborative annotated bibliography on a wiki. • A wiki can be used for publishing course resources like syllabi and handouts, and students can edit and comment on these directly for all to see. • Teachers can use wikis as a knowledge base, enabling them to share reflections and thoughts regarding teaching practices, and allowing for versioning and documentation. • Wikis can be used to map concepts. They are useful for brainstorming, and editing a given wiki topic can produce a linked network of resources. • A wiki can be used as a presentation tool in place of conventional software, and students are able to directly comment on and revise the presentation content. Parker & Chao 61 • Wikis are tools for group authoring. Often group members collaborate on a document by emailing to each member of the group a file that each person edits on their computer, and some attempt is then made to coordinate the edits so that everyone’s work is equally represented; using a wiki pulls the group members together and enables them to build and edit the document on a single, central wiki page. Guzdial, Rick, and Kehoe (2001) recount how wikis, including their CoWeb, can be used for classroom activities such as distributing information, collaborative artifact creation, and discussion and review. Naish (2006) describes wiki use in learning as an information resource, a collaboration tool, a tool for building e-learning content, and as icebreakers. The concept of workflow learning in action is thoroughly discussed. Schaffert, Bischof, et al. (2006) suggest the use of wikis in project-based learning, collaborative story writing, and interdisciplinary and intercultural learning. Tonkin (2005) identifies four different forms of educational wikis: 1. Single-user wikis allow an individual to collect and edit his or her own thoughts using a Web-based environment. 2. Lab book wikis allow students to keep notes online with the added benefit of allowing them to be peer reviewed and changed by fellow students. 3. Collaborative writing wikis can be used by a team for joint writing. 4. Knowledge base wikis provide a knowledge repository for a group. Lamb (2004) points out that some faculty utilize wikis so that design teams can quickly and collaboratively build reference lists and outlines, brainstorm instructional strategies, and capture suggestions. Bergin (2002) suggests a variety of uses for wikis including student homepages, anonymous feedback, student-created FAQ, ideas related to the course, infrastructure hints, and discussions. Schwartz et al. (2004) survey twenty-four universities and report how wikis are being used. They report that most dealt with activities, events, or clubs rather than with curricular issues. Wikipedia's (2006) School and University Projects page suggests uses of wikis in the classroom to provide students with exercises editing and publishing content on Wikipedia. Writing Assignments Perhaps the most common pedagogical application of wikis is supporting writing instruction (Lamb, 2004). Using a wiki as a writing tool maximizes the advantages of reflection, reviewing, publication, and of observing cumulative written results as they unfold (Fountain, 2005). Lamb (2004) reports that a wiki called "Why Use Wikis to Teach Writing" lists a number of the medium’s strengths for the teaching of writing skills: • wikis stimulate writing ('fun' and 'wiki' are often associated); • wikis provide a low-cost but effective communication and collaboration tool (with an emphasis on text rather than software); • wikis promote the close reading, revision, and tracking of preliminary work; • wikis discourage 'product oriented writing' while facilitating 'writing as a process'; and • wikis ease students into writing for a wider audience Barton (2004) lists some innovative uses for wikis in composition: 1. Any class project with a reference or encyclopedic format, such as instructions, user manuals, glossaries, etc. Wiki as a Teaching Tool 62 2. A class or group project with a bibliographic format that requires students to locate websites related to a topic, and then annotate, rank, and organize them. 3. A handbook or textbook. For example, students could build a guide to correct punctuation, which could be compiled and evaluated as a class, giving every student a stake in the project and benefiting each from the authoring process. 4. Any project that does not require individual authorship or protected documents. Rick, Guzdial, Carroll, Holloway-Attaway and Walker (2002) studied two sections of an English Composition class, taught by the same instructor. The first section used CoWeb, a wiki-based tool, to complete various assignments while the comparison section performed the same activities, but worked in a threaded-discussion on-line environment similar to a Usenet newsgroup. In each rating category, the CoWeb section outperformed the comparison section, in most cases by a large statistically significant amount. Forte and Bruckman (2006) discuss the writing-to-learn paradigm, focusing on how to engage student 69 H