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What is a Wiki?
According
to King and Cox (2011), “the term wiki comes
from the Hawaiian work, Wikiwiki,
which means quick” (p. 122) and can be defined as a “collaborative web space
where anyone can add content and anyone can edit content that has already been
published (as cited in West & West, 2009, p. 3). Perhaps the most recognizable wiki is Wikipedia, which is a
web-based encyclopedia (King & Cox, 2011).
What are the pros that the Wiki may bring
to enriching adult learners’ learning experience?
Although
Wikis have been around for over ten years, we’ve only recently seen instructors
regularly incorporating them into curriculum due to the information advantages
they offer to educational endeavors.
Wikis act as informational clearinghouses for student collaborative
learning. I have created wikis in
a few of my adult and continuing education courses with Kansas State University
and for me, I benefited from the collaboration and the sense of ownership the
wiki brings. “The wiki opens the
door to brainstorming, group problem solving, critical evaluation, synthesis,
idea refinement, and group consensus” (West & West, 2009, p. 5). Even more amazing is that this can be
accomplished over multiple time zones.
Another benefit for me was how easy it was to learn. There was virtually no learning curve
and I was able to create my first wiki with little instruction. Not only have a learned a lot from wiki
assignments, they have also been fun to create.
What are the cons of the Wiki?
The
wiki is a great tool for learning whether it’s used in an online course or a
traditional format. However, there
are a few negative aspects of the wiki feature that should be addressed. Although most wikis are free, they will
likely have advertisement, limited security and limited number of members who
can edit the wiki (West &West, 2007).
Personally, the editing features could be more user friendly. Although it’s easy and probably a good
idea to create the content of your wiki in a word document, I would prefer to
be able to edit my spelling and grammar within the wiki. I also have bad experiences when one of
my group members edited over my content so that I had to re-create it. West & West (2007) have found that
wiki pages have a tendency to look plain due to the limited editing
features. As reported by King
& Cox (2011), some students are concerned that others may edit the wiki
with irrelevant content if not properly password protected. Not all technology has been found to
benefit the classroom and although the wiki has some cons, I believe overall that
it is a useful tool that instructors should continue to incorporate into their
curriculum.
REFERENCES
King,
K. & Cox, T. (2011). The Professor’s Guide to Taming Technology.
Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing. ISBN: 9781617353338 e-book ISBN: 9781617353352
West,
J. and West, M. (2009). Using Wikis for Online Collaboration: The Power of
the Read-Write Web. San
Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. ISBN:
9780470343333
WEB GRAPHICS
(2013). On Time Team Wiki [Web
Graphic]. Retrieved from http://www.ontimenow.com
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Sunday, September 15, 2013
Wikis: Pros and Cons for Adult Learners
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Karyn:
ReplyDeleteThere is the issue of too much technology. Where is the benefit? I am constantly fighting that with faculty here on campus. I believe that some of our issues are that we do not have capable backbone infrastructure to really support those endeavors. There is also no staff personnel to help the faculty with their endeavors into technology. One thing that I am constantly hearing as well, and would love some input, we do not really offer online courses and there are no programs, so most faculty do not feel the need because almost all students are in traditional classroom settings. What are your thoughts to wiki usage in a setting where everyone meets face to face? Most of these discussions have been for an online environment.
Annie
DeleteHi Annie,
Thank you for your comment. I have found that it is difficult for many instructors that I work with to incorporate new technology in the classroom. I recently completed my interview with one of my instructors who normally teaches in a traditional classroom setting and was surprised by how negative he was about incorporating technology into his curriculum. I actually mentioned the wiki idea in the interview and although at the time he thought that would be too difficult for him, after the interview we discussed it and he thought it would be a great activity for his traditional classroom setting. Wikis promote more active learning and will give students in a traditional classroom the opportunity to use technology in a meaningful way.
Karyn
Hi Karyn.
ReplyDeleteYour comment above about how the collaborative nature of wikis enhances a sense of ownership really rung true for me. I believe that there is something about doing a project as a group that can drive us to contribute our best work, either because we are altruist, and don't want to let the group down, or proud, and don't want to look foolish in a public forum. And no doubt, the collaborative, public nature of wikis enhance that ownership.
Building on your idea, one of the things I find interesting about this collaborative development tool is that it represents a more Non-Western outlook on knowledge creation. Merriam and Kim (2008) explain that in Hindu, African and Islamic cultures, "learning is the responsibility of all members of the community because it is through this learning that the community itself can develop"(p. 73). I think that wikis push our Western, individual learning and personal recognition outlook to a more cohesive, community orientation by nature of their design. Do you agree?
Holly
Merriam, S. B. & Kim, Y.S. (2008). Non-Western Perspectives on Learning and Knowing. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 119(Fall). 71-81. dpi:10.1002/ace_302.
Hi Holly,
DeleteI agree! I think our western ways of learning are starting to overlap more into non-western ways of thinking. For example, I believe that the postmodern pedagogy is more of a western point of view, however, I believe you can still see some postmodern aspects in the non-western, Confucian point of view. For example, the Confucian way of thinking says that adult learning is focused on spiritual development and (Merrian, Cafarella and Baumgartner, 2011) says that with regard to a postmodern perspective that the spiritual aspect of self is just as important as the rational. Also the Confucian point of view suggests that adult learners must understand themselves before the teacher can assist in individual learning. Similarly, the postmodern pedagogy supports understanding self by encouraging the questioning one’s identity.
Merriam, S.B., Caffarella, R.S., & Baumgartner, L.M., (2007). Learning in adulthood. (3rd ed.) San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Karyn,
ReplyDeleteYou made some great points about the pros and cons of using Wikis. I think that research and personal experience relayed by others has shown that Wikis can be beneficial to use, especially for group work in an online course. When working with adult learners I think it is important to consider why a Wiki is being used versus a different option such as a blog or a discussion board. West and West (2009) did a good job of explaining the differences between Wikis and other tools such as threaded discussions and blogs. When working with adult learners I think the goal of the project or outcomes must be taken into consideration. As noted by West and West (2009) depending on what the goal is a blog or threaded discussion may be more useful.
I also think Annie brought up an interesting point about using Wikis in a traditional face-to-face course. I think there could be some benefit in this in helping students to learn how to use new technologies. Also, as many students know coordinating meeting times can be difficult so the use of a Wiki could be a great way to share information on a more flexible time schedule.
Reference:
West, J.A, & West, M.L. (2009). Using wikis for online
collaboration: The power of the read-write web.
San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Karyn,
ReplyDeleteYour point about wikis being open for editing seems to be the most negative aspect of this form of technology. In many cases, users use a psuedoname and go on these sites to edit, hopefully with good intentions. Yet, if they have negative intentions, it may be very difficult to find the responsible party.
At work, we share materials over the network, and have had the same issues as you: someone edits a document incorrectly or makes a mistake. The result is usually a bit of confusion to find who made the incorrect edit, find what was wrong, and make the proper corrections. While overall I feel that using shared documents or wikis is beneficial, this is a big drawback.