pedagogical uses of wikis in higher education

8/6/2019 Pedagogical Uses of Wikis in Higher Education

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Pedagogical Uses of Wikis in

Higher EducationJ. Patrick Tiedemann

GEORGIA GWINNETT COLLEGE


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What are our areas of interest?

Current experience with Wikis?

What do you want to get out ofthe hour?

Welcome &Who AreWe?


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1. What are wikis?

2. Take a look at the research, theory, and

practice3. Writer'sWorkshop approach to

constructingWikis:Whole Group Activity

4. Your interests HERE

Overview


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1. A group of interlinked pages, each with a uniquename

2. Can support both individual and team work

3. Each page editable by a number of people, oftena team or the whole community,

4. Use of a simple set of markup punctuation andother non-alphabet character patterns that canbe translated into common web page elements.

5. Easily edited through a web browser,withprevious versions of a page saved and retrievablein the event of mistakes

What areWikis?

Chen,Cannon, Gabrio, & Leifer (2005)


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Wikis generally take two formats: document mode and thread

mode.

Document wikis: Designers create collaborative multimodal

web pages. Participants share the development of thepages, adding to and editing the content.

Eventually the wiki page becomes a representation of the

shared knowledge and perspectives of the contributors.

Thread wikis: Basically, participants use the wiki as adiscussion board. Contributors participate in discussions

through signed messages. (Augar, Raitman & Zhou, 2004)

Image wikis

What areWikis?


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Vygotskys theory of development is based on

the idea that human learning is a social

process that requires activity and

collaboration with knowledgeable others.

TOOL MEDIATED (LANGUAGE, SIGNS,

CHARTS,DIAGRAMS,MULTIMEDIA)

GOAL DIRECTED

Theory and Practice


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The goal and purpose of learning activities:

Dewey &Vygotsky: learning as skills versus learning

through active, relevant social engagement;writing must be relevant to life (Vygotsky,1978, p.118)

The production of knowledge for an authentic

audience in an enduring form shifts the value and

purpose of our paper writing assignments,projects, etc. from exchange value to use

value.

Social Constructivism


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Our students work within their Zone of

Proximal Development - During the

development of wikis, the students shared

knowledge construction can exceed an

individuals current capabilities.

Social Constructivism

Current Independent

Knowledge

and Practice

Future Independent

Knowledge and

Practice

ZPDAssisted

K. & P.


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Teaching and learning online with wikisAugar,Raitman,& Zhou (2004)

Students can use wikis to create a set of

documents that reflect the shared knowledge

of the learning group. Wikis can also be used

to facilitate the dissemination of information,

to enable the exchange of ideas and tofacilitate group interaction. (p. 95).

Growing Body of Research


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Establishing Interaction


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Icebreaker: Establishing Interaction


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451 users actively participated in the icebreakerexercise.

A total of87 pictures were uploaded and displayed

Virtually all students participated actively andintroduced themselves to each other by answering the

questions.

1000 pages. 1000-2000 page views daily.

Edited approximately150 times daily; Over 2000 wikiedits in total.

Throughout the two weeks of the exercise there wasno misuse or intentional deletion

Results


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Keys to initiating and maintaining the students engagement

Expressed reflection as a core expectation: establishing the use of

the environment as a central part of the course from the first day.

Concreteness: giving regular, clear, small assignments for reflection

about specific class-related experiences, along with examples thatrepresented to the students good reflective writing, photography,

drawing, excerpting from things encountered, seen, or read, etc.

Feedback: regularly engaging with the students in conversations

about lessons to be learned from what they were experiencing,

and encouraging the students to browse, learn from, and respond

to what other students were creating;

Robustness

UsingWikis andWeblogs to Support Reflective

Learning in an Introductory Engineering Design Course

Chen,Cannon, Gabrio, & Leifer, 2005, pg. 9


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Teachers use technology to facilitate teaching, learning,community building, and resource acquisition.

Technology includes any flexible teaching and learningtools that support learner-centered instructional

strategies. Teachers use modern technologies as toolsto achieve high academic standards by integratingthem into their teaching and their own professionalgrowth. Educational communities must provideteachers with access to resources and mentors,

exposure to useful practices, and opportunities tolearn new technologies and technology evaluationskills.

Georgia Principles for Accomplished

Teaching


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Immersion

Collecting Ideas

Choosing a Topic

Gathering Topic InfoDrafting

Revising

Editing

PublishingCelebrating

Reflection

WritersWorkshop Approach


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Best Guess Gathering

Learning TheoryWiki: GGC

Immersion

Wikipedia

Wiki Search Engine


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Collecting Ideas

Choosing a Topic

Gathering Topic InfoDrafting

Revising

Lets Try It

Condensed


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Editing

Add questions, ideas, info, edits

Social Scaffolding


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The Floor is Open

Questions & Discussion


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Augar,N.,Raitman,R. & Zhou,W. (2004). Teaching and learningonline with wikis. In R. Atkinson,C. McBeath,D. Jonas-Dwyer& R. Phillips (Eds.),Beyond the comfort zone: Proceedings of the21st ASCILITE Conference (pp. 95-104). Perth, 5-8 December.

Retrieved1/1

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0 from:http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/perth04/procs/augar.html

Chen,H.L.,Cannon,D.M.,Gabrio, J.,& Leifer, L. (2005). Using Wikisand Weblogs to Support Reflective Learning in an IntroductoryEngineering Design Course. Paper presented at the 2005

American Society for Engineering Education AnnualConference & Exposition, Portland Oregon.

Vygotsky, L. (1979). Mind in Society. Cambridge: HarvardUniversity Press. (Original work published 1935)

References

pedagogical uses of wikis in higher education

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