Wiki inventor Ward Cunningham wrote in 2014 that the word “wiki” should not be used to refer to a single website, but rather to a mass of user-editable pages and or sites, so that a single website is not “a wiki” but “an instance of wiki”.(Wiki – Wikipedia.org)
This week I read a few articles related to wikis and their use in education. I think I have taken the concept of wikis for granted simply because the concept is something I believe in. It makes sense to me.
The first article was Schweder and Wissick’s The Power of Wikis. It looks at the ways in which wikis are used in education and breaks them down into four categories: collaboration, sharing, organization, and instruction. It gives examples of how wikis can be used in each situation. The largest subject it focuses on is collaboration. I believe this is what wikis are designed for, and all the proceeding categories included in this article are, I believe, sub-categories of collaboration.
Next I looked at How to Use Wikipedia as a Teaching Tool: Adrianne Wadewitz. In this article, Liz Losh gives a summary of Wadewitz’s thoughts on Wikipedia. This article highlighted the common errors that educators make when implementing the wiki idea into their lessons. I found one of the more interesting aspects of this article to be the focus on the wiki culture. Wadewitz often focuses on this culture, and points out on multiple occasions that there is a right way and a wrong way to interact with a wiki community.
Finally, I read Cress and Kimmerle’s A Systemic and Theoretical View if Knowledge Building Using Wikis. Of the articles I looked at, this was by far the most interesting to me. It explained how learning occurs when using a wiki. Users learn in multiple ways by using wikis. They learn by reading, contributing, and making inferences. They are involved in the community and the process of creating resources.
One of the questions I have always struggled with in regards to wikis, and one that was asked of me this week is this: How does knowledge building occur in wikis? Cress and Kimmerle’s article helped me the most in answering this. I also think one can use wikis to address most popular learning styles, outlined in wikipedia.org’s Learning Styles article.
Another argument against wikis is their validity. They are often criticized for having inaccurate information. I believe if you notice something inaccurately described on a wiki, you should fix it. I believe that simply by reading content on a wiki, you enter yourself into the community. Make the content valid.
So, why use wikis? Simply put, we all know that two heads are better than one. With the wiki concept, we can use the efforts of many heads and elaborate on the collective knowledge base.
Ben, I was interested that you thought the learning styles wiki page was a way to think about how to use wikis to deal with different learning styles; however, I did not see that anywhere — could you point it out, please? To me, the page seemed to identify that the notion of learning styles has no research base and is being derided by many educational researchers and scholars. Perhaps you linked to the wrong page?
I agree that validity is one of the main concerns when it comes to wikis. Wikipedia has made significant improvements over the years, but I remember when there was an issue with an oil company editing and changing information on the wiki page to make their company look better and to cover up the devastation of the oil spill. I strongly agree with Heidi’s comment that part of the collaborative learning process is deciphering between accurate and inaccurate information, knowing credible sources of information, etc.
Hey Ben,
I think you captured the value of wikis nicely and the sense of community.
The “sense of community” is the part I am concerned. Which community? There has been a number of incidents about what is called “Edit Warring.” Wikipedia even has a page devoted to discussing this: Wikipedia: Lames edit wars, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Lamest_edit_wars.
The opening line to the article is great. Is states, “Occasionally, even experienced Wikipedians lose their heads and devote every waking moment to edit warring over the most trivial thing, wasting time debating topics of no practical value, or wrestling over questions whose answers hold no practical consequence.”
While I like and generally agree with this point I do think sometimes it is worth while being passionate about a detail. There have been a number of times where a detail makes a difference. However, back to the larger point of the statement, people can lose sight of what is important.
Some topics are fairly benign. Others can en-flame the passions from different communities. A very recent example of this can be see in the Aug. 2015 article Wikipedia entries caught in online war over facts, http://www.timesunion.com/tuplus-local/article/Wikipedia-entries-caught-in-online-war-over-facts-6449801.php.
Your advice to ‘make the content valid’ (which I agree with) leaves open the question of “what is valid?” Do you have any thoughts on how to handle controversial topics and divergent views in the classroom?
Best regards,
Sean
Ben- we read a lot about the validity of information on a wiki’s site this week. It was one of the first questions I had about wikis as well. Two ideas jumped out at me as I read your post. You mentioned that the reader of a wiki has a responsibility to help ensure the content is valid. This made me think back to some of our earlier readings in this class about the importance of teaching our 21st century students strategies for recognizing accurate versus inaccurate information. I am always looking for effective ways to teach this skill. What are some ways that you encourage this in your students? I also thought about our exploration on becoming a networked learner and how it is important to add value consistently when you participate in a collaborative community. I believe our students need a roadmap from educators on exactly how to add that value and what value looks like. I like models, checklists and rubrics myself, but I think others might find that too structured or confining. Do you have any thoughts on that?
Ben — your leading quote about “wiki” as a system or a collective whole is a really interesting one. I’ve been turning that over in my head a bit.
Your point about using wikis to accommodate different learning styles was also thought-provoking. I can see how the resource and media rich possibilities of a web-based wiki could provide opportunities for students to interact with different presentations of concepts. Most wikis I’ve seen, though, are fairly text-based hyperlinked documents that might work best for visual learners.
I’m curious to hear more about how you envisioned using wikis to address different learning styles.