5 Cautions For Wikis in Classrooms
August 19th, 2009
I think there is a lot of potential for use of wikis in classrooms, particularly in the area of collaborative writing. There are a number of articles out there extolling the possible virtues of the tool. However, I also think it is important to look at potential pitfalls so they can (hopefully) be addressed during implementation. Here are five areas of caution that peer-reviewed articles have suggested: 
- 1. Not giving an incentive for wiki use. Neumann and Hood (2009) compared scientific report writing skills and engagement of two groups, one who used a group wiki for a practice report and one who individually used word processing to practice. Unfortunately, most of the wiki groups did not complete the practice report. There was no incentive (credit, grade, etc.) for completing the projects, and most did not. Apart from course credit, another incentive might be publishing the resulting wiki publicly.
- 2. Not knowing what you need from the wiki solution. Consider in advance what features you need in your wiki solution in order to make sure the one you use is appropriate. Trentin (2009) gives a very nice example of using wiki logs and ratings to quantitatively evaluate students’ individual participation in group writing projects. However, there are logging and administrative features that would make this easier. If you would like to use logging tools as part of your evaluation, make sure those are available. Other things to think about:
- How will you manage reviewing all of the content created?
- Is there an overall organization for student-generated content?
- How easy is the interface to edit? How much can you do with the WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) editor without learning coding language?
- Can more than one person at a time edit a page?
- 3. Not providing scaffolding. Cole (2009) attempted to implement a wiki in an information systems class and halfway through the semester there were no postings. Apart from point number 1 above, her research found that students had technical difficulties with the system and also were hesitant about being the first to post. Although her students were the “digital natives” we always hear about, most had not participated in a wiki environment, and Cole found that skills did not always transfer from other technology areas to the wiki. She recommends that a series of “cascading exercises” would be useful at the beginning of the course, walking through simple posting, annotating comments, linking etc. Cronin (2009) also found students were not familiar with wikis and suggested spending more class time than you think you need familiarizing them with wikis, recommending a review of the organization and structure of Wikipedia as a starting point. Also, allow them time to play in your wiki’s sandbox.
- 4. Not structuring participation. How much should students contribute on their own? How much should they edit others’ contributions? How much do they comment vs. edit? Wheeler, Yeomans, & Wheeler (2008) found that dividing content responsibility among the students resulted in clear roles, which the students liked, but resulted in few students reading and commenting on others’ postings. Both Wheeler et al and Cronin report that students felt a sense of ownership over “their” pages and responded negatively to others making changes to them. Issues of ownership and norms for editing should be established up front.
- 5. Not setting content standards. Wheeler, Yeomans, & Wheeler as well as Cronin noted that many students started out copying information from other sites. How do you want students to generate content? Give examples of commentary with hyperlinks to relevant sites. Do you want pictures? Video? Define what you want the end product to look like.
I think there is a lot of potential but, as with any educational solution, there is a significant amount of work to be done to make it successful.
Neumann, D. L., & Hood, M. (2009). The effects of using a wiki on student engagement and learning of report writing skills in a university statistics course Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 25 (3), 382-398
Trentin, G. (2009). Using a wiki to evaluate individual contribution to a collaborative learning project Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 25 (1), 43-55 DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2729.2008.00276.x
COLE, M. (2009). Using Wiki technology to support student engagement: Lessons from the trenches Computers & Education, 52 (1), 141-146 DOI: 10.1016/j.compedu.2008.07.003
Cronin, J. (2008). Upgrading to Web 2.0: An Experiential Project to Build a Marketing Wiki Journal of Marketing Education, 31 (1), 66-75 DOI: 10.1177/0273475308329250
Wheeler, S., Yeomans, P., & Wheeler, D. (2008). The good, the bad and the wiki: Evaluating student-generated content for collaborative learning British Journal of Educational Technology, 39 (6), 987-995 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8535.2007.00799.x
Tags: education, wikis
Posted in Technology | Comments (2)
2 Responses to “5 Cautions For Wikis in Classrooms”
Leave a Reply
Recent Posts
- Games and Simulation in Science
- Simulations and Labs: Either/or?
- Open Source, E-Textbooks, Traditional Texts… oh my!
- Predicting eLearning Dropout
- Development of Help-Seeking
Categories
- Assessment (3)
- Curriculum and Materials (5)
- Policy/ Government (2)
- Publication (1)
- Research Methods (4)
- Schools (1)
- Students (13)
- Teachers (8)
- Technology (8)
- Uncategorized (3)
September 2nd, 2009 at 12:05 pm
[...] 5 Cautions For Wikis in Classrooms [...]
November 10th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
[...] amazing possibilities for wiki use (so many ideas here), and I especially liked the little blurb here about the importance of scaffolding content to ensure kids are successful in their wiki [...]