Promoting Collaboration and Knowledge Building Through Wikis. Angela Novoa Etec 532 March 2011 UBC
Introduction Today s instruction is being challenged by the familiarity of children and adolescents with online environments and new technologies. Our students have changed radically and they expect to receive an education that differs from the notion held by the traditional educational system (Prensky, 2001). Children expect to build knowledge through interaction in the web. New learning environments are challenging traditional instruction methods. Palloff and Pratt (1999) suggest that a transition from the conventional classroom space to a new classroom in cyberspace is taking place. Web 2.0 tools are effective spaces for supporting the new environments that are taking place in instruction. Context I define this study as an action research about the integration of wikis as effective tools for promoting knowledge building and collaborative skills in students of Grade 10 at Villa Maria Academy School, of Santiago, Chile. The students were encouraged to collect and share resources for an essay through the creation of a wiki. The purpose of using the wiki was to promote collaboration and knowledge building. Research question How does the integration of wikis in Social Studies instruction promote knowledge building and collaboration skills? Literature Review Wikis are effective tools that enhance writing skills and collaborative learning. Lamb (2004) posits that the implications of integrating wikis in education may be more profound than the current gains in efficiency. Wikis may be an invaluable tool for teaching the rhetoric of emergent technologies. Through this application students learn new network literacies related to a collaborative and distributed environment. The most 2
common way to support instruction through wikis is by promoting the enhancement of writing skills. However, its affordances might be much deeper. Wikis promote the reading, revision and editing of drafts. In addition, it is a low-cost and effective collaboration tool. Teaching new network literacies is one of the challenges that educators should consider when integrating technologies like wikis in their practices. Knobel and Lankshear (2007) posit that literacy is related to reading, writing and meaning-making as integral elements of social practices. Literacy is related to a social discourse that is the context in which social practices take place. In light of this, students who collaborate through a wiki (or any other Web 2.0 application) engage in a context and are involved in a particular discourse that is defined by this context and their practices. This discourse has a particular meaning for them. Scardamalia & Bereiter (1999) sustain that schools must transform radically to prepare students for life in a knowledge society. Education should foster some objectives, learning activities and assessment criteria such as flexibility, creativity, problem-solving skills, technological literacy, information-finding skills, and a lifelong readiness to learn. Because of this, educators should conceive students role as active participants who collaborate with each other in the construction of knowledge. A blended environment, which combines face-to-face instruction with computer-mediated learning, might respond to the challenges that the new conditions of learning with technologies are imposing to k-12 instruction. Implementing blended environments will promote a set of skills supported by social constructivist approaches such as knowledge building, collaboration and critical thinking. 3
Wikis facilitate computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL). These tools are centered on the learner, enable the students to share authority and empower themselves with the responsibility of building their own knowledge (Augar, Raitman & Zhou, 2004). Wikis can support a community of practice model of learning (Choy & Kwok, 2007). In a community of practice (CofP) members depend on social learning systems based on competence and experience. A CofP involves mutual engagement and sharing cultural practices that are reflecting the collective learning of its members. Individuals develop sharing practices through their participation and learning on the group. Wikis can be an environment of participation and an artifact that record the community s practices. Ruth & Huoghton (2004) highlight the epistemological dimension of wikis as they involve collaboration, construction/co-construction of knowledge, different ways of learning through the interaction and collaboration rather than competition, and a different philosophical underpinning related to communities of practices and constructivism. According to Jonassen (1999) learning often occurs by collaboration and interaction between peers in problem-solving activities. A CLE engages learners in meaning making, through problem-solving of a case, a project, a question or an issue. CLEs support collaboration, shared decisions, interpretations of topics and problems, articulation of participants ideas, and reflection on the learning process. Jonassen posits that it is necessary to train the teachers and personnel who will be learning from a CLE. This project was supported on a coaching program in order to integrate technologies in instruction and improve the traditional environments to learning. 4
Considering that last year was full of interruptions due to the earthquake, the reconstruction and bicentenary celebrations, the training team and the teachers involved in the project decided to extend it to the next year. We decided that our students would learn how to collect resources and analyze them during 2010. Chilean s school year starts on March and ends on December. To provide a closure for 2010 academic year we decided to ask our students to create a Prezi presentation (as a kind of online application that encourages collaboration and construction of knowledge) that synthesize the information from the resources they found. Next year they would create the essay s central question or hypothesis and build the body of the essay. Through the wiki program we intended to create a Constructivist Learning Environment (CLE) that will prevail in time and be renewed by the further collaboration of new students. The progress of this project, which considers a wiki as a CLE, will be seen by the results of future research. Integration of wikis in Social Studies Instruction Since 2009 I have been integrating Web 2.0 technologies in my practice. For the last years some teachers of Villa Maria Academy School have been participating in training programs that intend to improve their practices through the integration of technologies in instruction. This training program supported the Social Studies teachers by facilitating the technological knowledge we did not have to start implementing the use of diverse 2.0 tools in our practices. When I entered working at Villa Maria Academy I noticed that our high school students had little experience with writing. This motivated the Social Studies teachers to encourage our students to create historical essays about a topic of their choice. We 5
decided to teach our students of grade 10 the steps for making an essay and the procedures to search for resources. We provided a bank of sources on the school network that might be helpful for the construction of the essay. When the project ended we concluded that having part of the work done by their teachers made difficult for our students to develop a historical meaning of their work. For this reason we decided to propose a new design that promotes self-inquiry, collaboration and construction of knowledge through the integration of a new technology. The technology that we chose was wikis. We decided that we would try a pilot of integrating wikis only with my class. After evaluating the results of the project we would decide whether expanding it to all the grade 10 students of the school or not. Other issue that I was concerned about my practice was considering all of my students needs and interests. Some students have difficulties and/or had little interest with Social Studies. Usually these students felt comfortable with using different kinds of technologies and were more interested in topics related to arts or music. For this reason I thought that working through a technology, that might include not only the written aspect of collecting resources, but also the audiovisual dimension, would help me in their engagement with the class. During the first semester of 2010 I was trained on managing wikis. The trainer decided that site that best fit with my skills and his knowledge about wikis was www.wikia.com. In addition, I provided to my students a document about historical essays, the kinds of resources that serve to working through this methodology and guidelines about working through the resources found. I explained the relevance of writing historical essays for Social Studies and the significance of the role of historians in the reconstruction of the 6
past. Finally, based on a manual of APA style that the library of the school had, I provided some guidelines about writing the references. During the second semester of 2010 my students learnt how to manage the wiki. They had to work in pairs to select a topic of Latin America s history, search for sources, and select them. Then, they had to post on the wiki of the class a list of references that include images and videos, based on APA style. After completing these steps they would have to propose a hypothesis or question to build the essay and write it. As I didn t have the amount of hours needed to teach how to manage the wiki, the teacher of Technology and Computer class offered to devote some of her classes to the teaching of wiki usage. During September I spent a couple of hours in the computer lab teaching my students how to work through the site. After they learnt how to manage the wiki they were encouraged to work in groups of two members to publish and share their resources in the wiki. They could include photos and videos, but they had to cite them properly. Due to other activities planned by the school for 2010 I had to be flexible with the schedule that I provided at the beginning of the semester and decided to extend the project to 2011 academic year. My perception about the progress of this project made me think about the need of a revision. I discussed these issues with my colleagues of the Social Studies Department and the trainer. We decided to divide the project in two sections: during 2010 I would teach them how to collect resources and build a synthesis of the topic selected through a Prezi presentation. During 2011 they will have to formulate a question or hypothesis and write the essay. Data Collection and Analysis Data was collected through video recording made by the trainer and observations made by the teacher. The trainer videotaped all the classes devoted to the Prezi presentations. 7
During these sessions the students discussed their feelings and perceptions regarding the integration of these new tools in Social Studies instruction. Results The observation of the videos provided feedback about students feelings and perceptions when integrating these new technologies to the knowledge they had about writing essays, searching for sources and building a reference list based on APA style. It also provided feedback about their meaning of the project. During the presentations the participants were required to state a brief personal opinion about the advantages and disadvantages of the integration of these tools in Social Studies instruction. Most of my students felt they could take better advantage of the wiki. They new that the wiki had applications that we did not use and that would promote collaboration between them. For example, by using the discussion section they would be able to evaluate the resources that each group presented or share resources with each other. In addition, even if they wanted to connect to the wiki not all of them had access in their homes and the school schedule was not flexible enough to incorporate these technologies at school. I discussed with my colleagues and the trainer the main ideas stated in the students reflections about the integration of these tools in my practice. We decided to transform the wiki project as an ongoing activity that will be perfected over time until these students graduate from grade 12. Table 1 shows the ideas about the experience of working through wikis discussed by the students during their presentations. 8
Table 1. Students perception about the integration of wikis in Social Studies instruction. Advantages of working through wiki The wiki promotes construction of knowledge. % of agreement from the total number of students of the class. 66% The wiki promotes collaborative learning. 33% Challenges for further use of wikis Provide a better use of the wikis applications. % of agreement from the total number of students of the class. 80% Provide more time to work through the wiki at school. 87% When referring to the experience about working through Prezi, the groups talked about selecting information and reorganizing it collaboratively. The fact that they could share it online helped them to collaborate asynchronously depending on the schedule of each member of the group. In light of this, they did not have to actually meet to build the presentation, which helped them to organize better and make their work more efficient. The latter made me wonder why this perception did not appear when working through the wiki. Most of the students felt that Prezi motivated them more to work in a collaborative manner than the wiki. The aesthetics of the tool is an important issue to consider when integrating a new technology. Some students felt lost when working through the wiki because of its design. In addition, it was mentioned that they were creating new information when working through Prezi. Through the wiki they were only listing references that could serve for the essay, but they were not building anything. By creating new information through Prezi they felt some kind of ownership of that information and they were learning new knowledge through their own research. Table 2 shows the ideas about the experience of working through Prezi discussed by the students during their presentations. 9
Table 2. Students perception about the integration of Prezi in Social Studies instruction. Advantages of working through Prezi Idea discussed during Prezi presentation. % of agreement from the total number of students of the class. Prezi promotes construction of 60% knowledge. The aesthetics and ease of managing 46% Prezi motivates using the tool. Prezi promotes collaborative learning. 53% Conclusions Wikis are tools that can support traditional settings of instruction and provide opportunities of collaborative learning and construction of knowledge, and perhaps, digital or new literacies. However, the design of the activities that are related to the use of the tool and the opportunities of access at school are relevant issues to consider when integrating technologies in instruction. Lamb (2004) mentions some disadvantages that might exist when working through wikis such as lack of aesthetics and explicit absence of an organizing structure. These issues made difficult the development of collaborative skills on some of the participants. The reflections of the students about the use of the wiki in this project and my own perception about its progress conduced this research for a further study. The Department of Social Studies and the training team involved in the project decided to extend to 2011 academic year. Our intention is to build an environment that provides opportunities to make this activity an ongoing process that ends when the participants graduate from grade 12. During these two years the participants will build two historical essays about a topic of their choice. The first one will be related to the resources collected during 2010. We intend to build a community of sharing and building new information through the construction of the essays on the 10
wiki of the class. Further research will be needed to analyze the results of this new experience. References. Augar, N., Raitman, R., Zhou, W (2004). Teaching and learning online with wikis. In: Beyond the comfort zone: Proceedings ASCILITE Perth 2004. Retrieved February 15, 2011, from: http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/perth04/procs/augar.html Choy, S., Kwok, C (2007). Implementing Wiki software for supplementing online learning. Australian Journal of Educational technology 23(2), 209-226. Retrieved February 15, 2011, from EBSCOhost. Jonassen, D. (1999). Designing constructivist learning environments. In C. Reigeluth (Ed.), Instructional design theories and models: Volume II. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Retrieved January 7, 2011, from https://www.vista.ubc.ca/webct/relativeresourcemanager/template/pdf/jonassen- 1.pdf Knobel, M., & Lankshear, C. (2007). Sampling the new in New Literacies. In M. Knoebel & C. Lankshear (Eds.), A new literacies sampler. pp. 1 24. New York: Peter Lang. Retrieved March 28, 2011 from: http://www.soe.jcu.edu.au/sampler/ Lamb, B. (2004). The way it was meant to be. Educause Review. 39(5), 36-48. Retrieved February 9, 2011 from EBSCOhost. Palloff, R., Pratt, K. (1999). When Teaching and Learning Leaves the Classroom. In: Building learning communities in cyberspace: Effective strategies for the online classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Prensky, M (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. On the Horizon 9(5). Retrieved March 28, 2011, from: http://www.albertomattiacci.it/docs/did/digital_natives_digital_immigrants.pdf Ruth, A & Hooughton, L (2009). The Wiki wat of learning. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology 25(2) 135-152. Retrieved February 15, 2011, from EBSCOhost. Scardamalia, M & Bereiter, C (1999). Schools as Knowledge Building Organizations. In D. Keating & C. Hertzman (Eds.), Today s Children, Tomorrow s Society: The Developmental Health and Wealth of Nations (pp. 274-289). New York: Guilford. Retrieved February 27, 2011, from: http://www.ikit.org/fulltext/1999schoolsaskb.pdf 11