Notes on wiki articles

Ferris, S. and Wilder, H. (2006) ‘Uses and potentials of wikis in the classroom’, Innovate, vol. 2, no. 5. Available from: http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=258 (accessed 13 January 2009)

The authors outline a shift in learning and communication paradigms that expose a cultural gap between educators and today’s students. They refer to print paradigm, and a secondary-oral paradigm and argue that because the majority of educators have a grounding in ‘print’, that they “distrust the concept of wikis profoundly.”

In advocating wikis for educational use, the authors state, “Because the technology of wikis is so simple, wikis have immense potential in the classroom.” However they also warn of the widespread perception that wiki content lacks truthfulness. Despite questioning the academic legitimacy of wiki content, the authors also reflect on the potential damage caused by indicating to students that wikis are ‘bad’ – that is they may miss valid information, or “sending the message that anything easily published is not to be trusted.”

Other benefits outlined are that wikis encourage community building among students, and an emphasis on collaboration and shared knowledge construction. Additionally, the authors comment on how wikis can enable students to structure knowledge, moving away from “printed texts where information is accessed sequentially and as a linear whole.”
Finally, it is suggested by the authors that the use of wikis requires “thoughtful and deliberate planning.”

Lamb, B. (2004) ‘Wide open space: wikis, ready or not’, Educause Review, vol. 39, no. 5 (September/October), pp. 36–48. Available from: http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm04/erm0452.asp (accessed 13 January 2009)

Lamb provides a well-balanced perspective on wikis, offering pragmatic information on the physical entity that is a wiki, and the benefits and challenges associated with their use. Challenges include the issue of tracking contributions. However it is suggested that this can be overcome with “some set of protocols to regulate or index them.”

The issue of Intellectual Property Rights is also highlighted. Lamb identifies anonymity of authors and origins of content as adding complexity to the IPR situation with wikis. However, there are copyright policies in existence (and in use) for wikis.
An increased dependence on technology may also have implications. However, as with many of the challenges mooted by the author, the proposed solution is simple. Plan ahead. Finally he argues that “wikis and other emergent technologies are filling a gaping void in existing practice”, because what these tools offer is not being made available from current IT tools. “Change is happening. What remains unknown is whether educators, institutions and developers wil join (or coexist with) the revolutionary forces.”

Mindel, J. and Verma, S. (2006) ‘Wikis for teaching and learning’, Communications for the Association of Information Systems, vol. 18, no. 1. Available from: http://cais.aisnet.org/articles/default.asp?vol=18&art=1 (accessed 13 January 2009)

The authors outline a range of potential applications for a wiki that they have gleaned from examples of practice across multiple citations. These include: analysis; FAQs; literature review; glossary; ice breakers; portfolio; peer review; journals; aggregation of web resources; living encyclopaedia.

The authors evaluate the impact of various activities using a wiki on the collaboration for the cohort. They reflect on the benefits of wikis, stating that using wikis “provided not only the collective knowledge in a coursed but also provided a chronological history of the knowledge base as it evolved.” They go on to reflect that this content surpasses that possible in a singular document.

Critically, reference is made to the need for educators to “facilitate information sharing” rather than instruct learners, indicating the focus of wiki activities residing with the learners. It was also thought that wikis were easily scalable.

5.3 Key principles

I wanted to informally record some of my initial thoughts about the literature for activity 5.3 so I have something to return to after we (group A) have gone through the process of designing and developing a poster featuring the key principles of e-learning practice. Hopefully this will enrich my reflection at 5.4.

Hillier (2002) highlights the difference in perspectives of excellent teaching from policy and practice. The student view is that an excellent teacher is characterized by ability to plan, use resources, have excellent subject knowledge, be able to communicate effectively and have good interpersonal skills. I think all of these are critical in an online context too, but the one I wanted to focus on was to communication aspect. Interactivity is underpins the success of online teaching and learning, and for interaction to take place, functional mechanisms for communication must be in place. The e-learning professional needs to recognize that skills in using these communication tools are fundamental to their practice.

The output from the workshop carried out by Goodyear et al (2001) starts to articulate a wide range of competences. Even though these are distributed across identified roles, there are some common parallels that underpin many of the themes arising. For example, across the roles of ‘process facilitator’, ‘assessor’ and ‘technologist’ a theme concerning privacy, ethics and respect emerges from the following criteria: “Respect the privacy of individuals and group members.” “Appreciate ethical issues.” “Respect the intellectual property rights of others.”

The JISC (2004) Effective Practice Guide has a useful table on page 51 that summarizes some of the issues that you need to consider when developing online learning activities. Similar themes arise, motives for learning, availability of resources and tools, for example. These are beautifully articulated in the diagram on page 49, where there is a clear indication that the focus is on the learning activity. This makes sense, as it is the pivot for all those other features: the student is motivated by what task they are to undertake next; the assessment of the task; the interactive experience whilst it is undertaken; reflection on the activity; and so on.

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I’ve started to formulate a series of principles that I feel should underpin e-learning practice, although as I write, I think they are maybe categorized in other ways in the literature… anyway, here goes:

1) Ethical Practice – Act in an ethical and professional manner at all times, respecting the privacy of individuals and acknowledging the potential risks of using online tools. Seek out and contribute to the development of protocols for responsible and professional use of tools in the educational context.

2) Motivate – Find ways of motivating online participants (involved in both teaching and learning) and “ensure active participation of all learners.” (Goodyear et al, 2001) Help build support networks that engender a work ethic by establishing a community of practice.

3) Communication and Interactivity – Always keep in mind the need for interactivity. Communicate in an organized and articulate manner and encourage focused interactivity. “Instructors should provides clear guidelines for interaction with students.” “Well designed discussion assignments facilitate meaningful cooperation among students.” (Graham et al, 2001) – 3a) Expectations – Communicate expectations relating to contact, deadlines and support.

4) Ownership and Personalization through Reflection – Prioritize reflection as a mechanism for personalized learning, and encourage the use of technologies that enable personalized learning. Create online learning opportunities that allow students to take ownership of their individual and group endeavours.

5) Technology Awareness – A responsibility to maintain knowledge of the technologies that may be effectively applied for online teaching and learning, to have an understanding of their capabilities and limitations, and to take into account the training and development needs of using technologies.

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Goodyear, P., Salmon, G., Spector, M., Steeples, C. and Tickner, S. (2001) ‘Competencies for online teaching’, Educational Technology Research & Development, vol. 49, no. 1, pp. 65–72. Available online as a course resource from: http://learn.open.ac.uk/mod/resourcepage/view.php?id=90970 (accessed 9 November 2008)

Graham, C., Cagiltay, K., Lim, B.-R., Craner, J. and Duffy, T.M. (2001) ‘Seven principles of effective teaching: a practical lens for evaluating online courses’ [online], The Technology Source, March/April. Available from: http://technologysource.org/article/seven_principles_of_effective_teaching/ (accessed 9 November 2008)

Hillier, Y. (2002) ‘The quest for competence, good practice and excellence’ [online], The Higher Education Academy. Available from: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/id494_quest_for_competence?i=academyYork (accessed 9 November 2008)

JISC (2004) ‘Effective practice with elearning: a good practice guide in designing for learning’ [online], JISC/HEFCE. Available from: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/ACF5D0.pdf (accessed 9 November 2008)