Using wikis in the second language

classroom

Dr. Yuly Asención-Delaney

Modern Languages Department

Northern Arizona University

What is a wiki?

Definition: It’s an open, free, web-based software/application/tool that allows all

viewers of a page to change the content by editing the page online in a browser (Ebersbach, Glaser, & Heigl, 2006)

It’s a website where anyone can edit anything anytime they want (Richardson, 2006).

Features: Content is ego-less, time-less, and never finished. It does not only have text, but also graphics, links, annotations,

reflections, PowerPoint presentations, video and audio files, discussion forum, and spreadsheets.

Content is made available in a quick and uncomplicated manner.

Uses of wiki in the L2 classroom - Examples To teach collaborative writing skills (brainstorming,

create or edit entries to books that have already been started elsewhere, summarize readings and movies, develop research projects)

(http://schools.wikia.com/wiki/Tragedies) (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/French/Texts) To develop reading/listening comprehension (

http://leyendoenspa102.wetpaint.com/) (http://listolearn.wetpaint.com/).

To create an online text for your curriculum that you and your students can both contribute to (http://spa513.wetpaint.com/).

Uses - Examples

To publish course resources like syllabi, handouts (http://profesorablue.wetpaint.com/)

As a presentation tool - students are able to comment on and revise the presentation content.

It could be a resource, a showcase for best practices/teaching portfolio (http://fre202.wetpaint.com/).

It can be use as collaborative tools among teachers or districts to collect and share information.

(http://educators.pbwiki.com/ESL+wikis)

Benefits

Giving students editorial control can imbue in them a sense of responsibility and ownership for the site.

Students learn how to develop and use all sorts of collaborative skills, negotiating with others to agree on correctness, meaning, relevance, and more.

Easy-to-use. It requires little technical support and training.

Benefits

Wikis invigorate and facilitate writing, reading, listening and speaking.

They provide an effective communication and collaboration tool.

They’re learner-centered, affordable and accessible.

Foster collaborative learning Task-oriented and authentic.

Concerns

To track work created in wiki spaces. Attribution of individual work can be difficult. Difficult to show when information was

documented. Wikis can be subject to vandals - individuals

posting content.

How do we create wikis?

There are a variety of wiki tools: Pbwiki Wikispaces Editme WetPaint (www.wetpaint.com) MediaWiki

Enhancing your wiki

Audio: Audacity - to download the software: (

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/) Viewpoint (http://clear.msu.edu/viewpoint/) Gcast (podcast) (http://www.gcast.com/)

Video: Youtube Google videos Viewpoint

Enhancing your wiki

Images: Google images Photobucket (http://photobucket.com/)

Images + audio comments: Voicethread (http://voicethread.com/)

Presentations: Slideshare (http://www.slideshare.net/) Google docs

Links

References

Ebersbach, A., Glaser, M., & Heigl, R. (2006). Wiki web collaboration. Berlin, Heidelberg, New York: Springer.

Lamb, B. (2004). Wide open spaces: Wikis, ready or not. EDUCAUSE Review, 39 (5), 36-48. Retrieved April 30, 2008, from http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Review/WideOpenSpacesWikisReadyo/40498

Parker, K.R., Chao, J.T. (2007). Wiki as a teaching tool. Interdisciplinary Journal of Knowledge and Learning Objects, 3, 57-72. Retrieved May 06, 2008 from http://www.ijklo.org/Volume3/IJKLOv3p057-072Parker284.pdf

Richardson, W. (2006). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful Web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Warschauer, M., & Grimes, D. (2007). Audience, authorship, and artifact: The

emergent semiotics of web 2.0. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 27, 1-23.