What is wiki? Wiki (or wikispaces) is a web site that is free to create, add, edit and read by anyone who visits them. Wiki can be a collaborative tool that allows registered users to make entries on topics. For a group of people who wants a central gathering place for a certain work or project, Wiki provides a place to aggregate and organise contents in a centrally accessible environment. Information and accessibility to wiki can be kept as private or public depending on the policy set by the group.
For the purpose of collaborating virtually for students taking PXGT6308 Instructional Strategies in Distance Education, the students created a Wiki on topic ‘How people learn in DE’ via this wiki address (go to http://pxgt6308.wikispaces.com/). Another Wiki is created by PXGT6308 facilitator to strengthen the collaboration among students and to focus the students on to a particular topic. (go to http://learninghaven.wikispaces.com/).
Now, the question is, we have the Wiki and its participants, but how to improve the collaboration in Wiki?
To answer this question, I’m going to explore options from different perspectives, that is, technology, instructional strategies and attitude factors.
How well do the students know about the Wiki features?
Technology doesn’t determine the success of collaboration but how well the students manipulate the technology to achieve the goal of the collaboration. To get the participants comfortable with the new environment, provide scaffolding of 10 minutes technology knowledge sharing session in the early stage of the project to get students familiarise with Wiki features. So, the students will know where to click, edit, categorise information, type discussion and discuss about Wiki etiquettes. The appointed leader can lead a Wiki knowledge sharing session and the students can discuss on how to go about creating, editing, managing and compiling the Wiki. They can choose to keep certain information private and accessible only to team members (and they should, when necessary).
For practice purposes, in the early stage, give freedom to each student to create their own page by putting on information related to their own interest topic (doesn’t need to be to academics). This will take sometime but it is a good practice to let the students familiarise with Wiki features before they’re really prepared to venture into serious collaboration and fully manipulate Wiki features. This strategy will overcome the challenges of breaking down barriers of ‘fear of the unknown’ and ‘varying rates of acceptance’ as mention in this article about challenges to change.
Wiki gives the students the freedom to publish pages that are long-lived, regularly updated, and built by many contributors. Wiki provides the space to both publish and discuss content, without tangling the two together. Wiki content can be continually updated at any time by anyone with knowledge to contribute.
In a wiki, everyone who has permission to edit a particular page can directly edit what others have written, and it’s important for people to understand and become comfortable with this in order to effectively use the wiki.
What kind of intervention can be done to improve the collaboration?
Even though collaborating through Wiki provides freedom for participants, but some kind of enforcement and motivation could further attract the participants. I know it works with school children but for the adult learner it would need self discipline and self motivation to work collaboratively with others.
In Wiki, when designing activities to achieve the aim of learning, accurate and clear instructions should be provided. Seems the collaboration is through editable platform, a fixed and authorised instruction should be put as a guide to learners, but the learners are given the freedom to solve the activities or modify the activities to suit the learning outcomes.
Kanuka, Rourke & Laflamme (2007) suggest that engaging learners requires instruction that is well structured, with clear responsibilities for students, and provokes students to join in deeper levels of discussion.
One way of designing activity using Wiki could be used for is those that require students to brainstorm, divide, conquer, and re-unite. All group members could have the opportunity to edit and revise others' work before submitting the final unit. The culminating project would be a collaborative, usable, standards-based unit of instruction ready for use in the classroom. Check here
Another type of project that Wikis could be used for is one that requires students to divide, conquer, and merge. Given a topic for a group of students, each student work with partners to find points in the topic, and then elaborate and provide in-depth explanation, post and discuss in Wiki and then merge the notes with other students in the Wiki. Check here
As the participants get used to collaborate with others, the potential of dropping numbers of discussion will occurs when their information and explanation overlaps each other. It will be a good experience for participants if there are experts who are not teaching the class to join in the discussion and start to share their expert views and provide feedback in the discussion.
Developing the ability to collaborate effectively is difficult, because collaboration is voluntary. So, to push for collaboration, facilitators and students need to create engaging conditions that can encourage students to participate in discussion, generate new ideas and share knowledge. The platform should provide the environment of trust, self-management, behavioural protocols, shared intent and equitable sharing of returns. Check here
Palloff and Pratt (1999) present a strong argument for taking the time to create a classroom culture that promotes shared learning experiences and teamwork. They suggest that the responsibility for creating this culture in the classroom is the responsibility of all participants, not just the instructor.
When students are not in class, the wiki allows students to create a sort of "virtual classroom" where students can exchange remarks, upload products, peer edit their work, and plan presentations. The wiki should not be something extra but it should make currently collected data easier to sort and access. Due to Wiki nature of open editing, close monitoring are needed, either perform by the facilitator or representatives of the students.
The schedule of maintaining and editing should be informed to team members so that they’re given sufficient time to contribute their opinions, provide feedback to questions and doing the activities posted.
Working collaboratively needs commitment and cooperation from all members of the Wiki. Each articles and discussion posted need to be reviewed and vetted by trusted viewer either from the members itself, facilitator or invited experts.
Other motives that will inspire students to collaborate in the Wiki by highlighting the benefits of Wiki and its impact on students’ learning inquiry and process.
Collaboration in Wiki enables the student to synthesise, analyse and teaches back to peers and Wiki provides a place where documentation and consensus occurs, authenticating the product and making it as relevant as possible in an academic environment. Check here , here and here
