If you can’t already tell, I am new to blogging, if you don’t count a less-than-successful classroom blog I tried out in my composition class last year. However, thanks to this guy, I have been using wikis quite a bit the last two years. This semester I am teaching my Argument and Exposition class using a class wiki. I love it.
Even though I have been using wikis, I haven’t actually read that much about them. I just got around to reading the Wikipedia entry on wikis. It was interesting and deepened my understanding of the history of wikis and how they work. I now know that I have Ward Cunningham to thank for this tool.
To me, these are the benefits of the wiki in the classroom:
- Little implicit structure, allowing the structure to emerge based on the needs of the user. It is a lot more flexible than other online teaching or learning tools I have used. The class itself can change the structure as we go. The very adaptability of it encourages risk-taking and collaboration.
- In this interview with Ward Cunningham, he states that “I wanted people who wouldn’t normally author to find it comfortable authoring, so that there stood a chance of us discovering the structure of what they had to say.” I teach beginning writers. Most of them are not comfortable with ‘authoring.’ The loose flexibility of the wiki helps them put what they want to say in writing without a lot of the constraints we impose on other, more familiar writing materials.
- Page history aspect is fantastic. You can’t lose what you’ve written, unless you are not saving. There is a freedom in revising a wiki page, knowing that you can always go back and recover what you have deleted or changed. As an instructor, I can also see students’ revising process. I can also see what they are not doing (and what they wait until the last minute to do).
- The best feedback I have ever gotten about group projects have been from wiki-based group projects. Collaboration is easy and I can see which students haven’t done anything and pull them from their groups. Yes, I have done that.
- Seeing what they are doing as they work makes it easier for me to intervene earlier when I see a student going off into the weeds with something.
- I can change things on the fly, and my students can keep revising. There is no “finished” paper printed off and preserved for all time. It is never done.
Downsides:
- Sometimes technology fails. Last week we were meeting for a peer edit workshop. The wireless hub where we meet was having problems. It was a giant pain. I had to give them directions and send them off. However, the nice thing was that they could still workshop remotely.
- Skeptical students. Although, even they are coming around.
- Grading. I am not going to lie, reading hard copy papers is much easier on the eyes. By digging and playing around with different sites, I have found that some wikis are better than others at mobile device compatibility. Critically reading lengthy prose on a mobile device is much easier. This semester I am using WikiDot.
I guess this is my shout-out to wikis. They may not be pretty, but that is one thing I like about them. They are not concerned with being pretty, just with content and collaboration and getting the work done. I can appreciate that.
More information about education and wikis:
- Wikibooks: Wikis in Education
- Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching’s Guide to Wikis
- Naomi Augar, Ruth Raitman, and Wanlei Zhou’s “Teaching and Learning Online with Wikis”
- Sarah Guth’s “Wikis in Education: is Public Better?”
Seeking Knowledge... 