A wiki provides a online space for a public or a private group to collaborate and document a collective understanding of a specific topic (King & Cox, 2011; West & West, 2009) In giving learners a space to construct, revise, edit, and improve the collective understanding, the collaborative group develops a form of motivation built of the excitement of building something together. Richardson (2006) (as cited by Hazari, North, & Moreland, 2009) talks about the 'give and take' approach to collaboration building a social connection great than that which could be built in a classroom. There are really two parts that power the wiki: the collaborative technology platform and the situated or problem-based learning.
Of course, with any truly collaborative technology, there are drawbacks. First, if the information presented in the wiki is not guaranteed to be accurate (West & West, 2009). Wikipedia is a great example of a completely open content source. It can be edited by anyone and is referenced by many. Personally, I agree and feel Wikipedia is useful in providing a learner antidotal information about a topic but academic sources should be use for citations. Another drawback of the wiki in academic coursework is the challenge in making sure all the learners have enough experience with the technology to be successful and focus on the learning outcome and not the creation of a wiki (Hazari, North, & Moreland, 2009) Grading and evaluating individual contribution to the wiki can be more challenging and an educator will need to define a specific strategy to evaluate each learner and be transparent about how success will be measured.
I'm looking to harness this wiki power in on of my current learning program under construction. The learners that I'm looking to reach are our farmer/rancher customers. They have likely attended a f2f 'lunch and learn' to hear a highly respected speaker discuss marketing crops in their region. My goal is to bridge the learning void that occurs between the annual 1.5 hour 'lunch and learn'. My idea is to create a learning community comprised of 10-15 farmer/ranchers from a similar region and pair them with a Financial Officer from their region to help guide an ongoing discussion. In addition to a monthly, f2f or Zoom call, the group would collaborate on a wiki, developing something hat might look like a local Farmers Almanac resource built year over year. A few ideas of the widgets that could be added to this wiki would be: RSS feed from local Coop with commodity prices, annual speaker's Twitter feed, interactive calendar for local farming events, and YouTube videos.
While developing the above use case, I found myself vetting my thought through the following questions:
- Will a wiki elevate learners' engagement with the objectives?
- Is there easier technology to use to collaborate on this project?
- What are the risks of using a wiki with these learners, in this setting?
- What are the benefits of using a wiki with these learners, in this setting?
References
Hazari, S., North, A., & Moreland, D. (2009). Investigating pedagogical value of Wiki technology. Journal of information systems education. 20(2). 187-198.
King, K. & Cox, T. (2011). The professor’s guide to taming technology. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
West, J. and West, M. (2009). Using Wikis for online collaboration: The power of the read-write Web. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Good vetting questions, Carli. I think some of the suggestions Hazari, North, & Moreland (2009) make in their conclusion will also be helpful in guiding your thinking on helping this audience. In addition, I think the skill/confidence-building ideas West & West (2009) suggest in their 2nd chapter can help your learners. While the idea of an "icebreaker" in this group may not be intuitive, I think something like the Stem Statements activity (p. 48) they suggest might work well. I thought the Wiki-Libs activity (p. 48) was probably the best adaptation of MadLibs to a training environment I've ever seen--it actually has a learning purpose beyond making people laugh. (I'm not opposed to laughing in training, but as a trainer I want to make sure we're doing double-duty by laughing AND advancing learning objectives. Wiki-Libs seems to do that.)
ReplyDeleteI ran across an interesting report on an attempt to create a self-sustaining learning community. The short-term small group projects were successful but the whole-group collaboration did not continue once the experimenters' scaffolding supports were removed (Lin & Reigeluth, 2016). Their report might help you in preparing. They hypothesize that small-group project wikis and whole-group wikis are different enough to learners to require different learning mind-sets.
Kummer (2018) offers "a framework of factors influencing collaboration within a wiki," which may also be useful. I thought Kummer did a nice job of separating the factors you can control as facilitator (the task assignment and system quality as factors of "teaching context," for example) and those you cannot control but can influence (IT skills as part of the "student characteristics," for example). I think it's also worth a look, to see if you can take advantage of some of those research results.
Best
--Les
Hazari, S., North, A., & Moreland, D. (2009). Investigating pedagogical value of Wiki technology. Journal of information systems education. 20(2). 187-198.
Kummer, C. (2013). Factors influencing wiki
collaboration in higher education. doi:10.2139/ssrn.2208522
Lin, C-Y, & Reigeluth, C. M. (2016). Scaffolding wiki-supported collaborative learning for small-group projects and whole-class
collaborative knowledge building. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 32, 529-547. doi: 10.1111/jcal.12140
West, J. A. & West, M. L. (2009). Using Wikis for Online Collaboration: The Power of the Read-Write Web. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Les,
DeleteOnce again, you've turn my attention to a very valuable study that will help direct and support the development of my customer focused education program. The Lin & Reigeluth (2016) study focused on the success of wiki use for both the small group and whole class format. I focused on the small group use research and noted that generally, the strategy that I would use with customers was supported by this study. Working with customer opting to be a part of the small group, really only the two first phases (planning and group process) are directly relevant. The participants reported positively about the experience.
It's not surprising that most of the research is focused on the higher education setting since it's the most logical format in which to use a wiki. There is a chance that using a collaborative wiki with learners that can opt out at any point (without penalty such as a financial loss from lost tuition or a failing grade) may result in learners become disengaged by the risk of posting and collaborating with peers. Will the risk/fear outweigh the rewards of collaborating in this setting? Does this type of learning require too much commitment for a learner who isn't receiving anything but being better at their job (farming/ranching)?
These are just a few of the new questions your post has triggered. I appreciate the perspective and the resources.
Lin, C-Y, & Reigeluth, C. M. (2016). Scaffolding wiki-supported collaborative learning for small-group projects and whole-class
collaborative knowledge building. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 32, 529-547. doi: 10.1111/jcal.12140
Carli, good point about grading and evaluating individual contributions to Wiki projects. Typically, collaboration and group projects are not something I get excited about. Even though I’m a self-diagnosed introvert, my lack of enthusiasm isn’t in working with others, it’s the added stress (be it self-imposed) of living up to group standards. Some of the questions that rush through my mind as I contemplate how I will be evaluated (not just by the teacher but by group members as well): Am I pulling my weight? Will group members be content with my significant contributions? Am I stepping on others toes by taking control of a situation? Conversely, did I dial back my type A military personality too much and take a back seat? On the other hand, I do welcome the collaboration these projects provide. They help to break up the monotony of written assignments and discussion boards, and facilitate a certain level of learning that only face-to-face human interaction can provide, even if it’s through a computer screen.
ReplyDeleteRight?! I do the same thing by worrying about whether my contribution aligns with my peers. I worry when I don't have a great idea. It's a battle to be sure! Les suggested an article in his response above that also relates to your comments here. In Lin & Reigeluth (2016), the third phase of the collaborative wiki project was to provide peer responses. Some of the draw backs they found during that stage was peers not wanting to provide solid/specific feedback to another group's project citing peers more as competitors. The risk of evaluating collaborative learning is that it does skew the learners lens. I'm imagining how you might approach a collaborative project differently if it wasn't graded. How many of your concerns above would melt away? Just good food for thought!
DeleteCarli, one of the points you addressed as a drawback is something with which I’ve been struggling, “the challenge in making sure all the learners have enough experience with the technology to be successful and focus on the learning outcome and not the creation of a wiki” (Hazari et al., as cited in Carli). This I find to be a walk on a tightrope. “Kirkpatrick states that the advantages of using wikis is that they require few technical skills and allow the student to focus on collaboration and information exchange without getting distracted with technical difficulties” (as cited in King and Cox, 2011, p. 122). I conducted a light search of the internet to find background on the authors:
ReplyDeleteKing is also not a native born tech user, but works at the Regional Education Technology Center (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_P._King).
Pooneh, author of chapter 8 state in her self-summary that educational technology is one of her higher education skills (https://www.linkedin.com/in/pooneh-lari-ed-d-a587b37).
Cox has a plethora of subjects that he’s written, but at least 13 of his 35 articles are based on technology and learning (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=tToHOnoAAAAJ&hl=en).
Although these authors are not considered digital natives, they have more than the average experience with technology travel. What I question, is whether from these points of view can an accurate statement of “without getting distracted with technical difficulties” be fairly made (Pooneh as cited in King and Cox, 2011, p. 122). When thinking of my work in the Oklahoma school district where I work with seven secondary schools and K-12 teachers are required to be, and most often enjoy being adult learners. Many would get bogged down with the technology learning. I’m still thinking on this...
Pooneh, l. (2011). The professor's guide to taming technology [Kindle version]. King, K. P. & Cox, T. D. (Eds). Information Age Publishing. Retrieved from Amazon.
I completely agree with your challenge to the validity of wikis as being a lower tech learning platform. First, I find the wiki limitations to be a challenge, which seems counterintuitive, but true. Trying to insert a table, get it centered, and make it pretty is much more challenging in a wiki than in something like Microsoft Word.
DeleteOne of the coolest platforms I've worked in recently is Microsoft Teams. It's included as part of the Office 365 suite. Within the Teams app, you can have multiple groups. These groups have a discussion thread with the option of pulling in many, many apps to collaborate. I regularly use the wiki feature within Teams to set-up course work. If you haven't had a chance to check out this platform, it's very cost effective (since it's include in 365) and much more user friendly. https://products.office.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software
We use Microsoft teams too and overall it has good results, but there is still a learning curve to its use as well. At my work, to start a team, we have to go through IT to set up a team and then they want to know EVERYONE who may be part of the team before they open it--it is actually somewhat of a pain due to this annoying step (not a teams issue, but an IT issue with my work).
DeleteAdditionally, it was mentioned by "unknown" that some of the teachers may get bogged down by technology learning- and I couldnt agree with that more. There are some people at my work who still dont know how to use our systems and consistently rely on others to help them through. This cuts way down on that individuals productivity as these people will wait for help rather than try to figure it out themselves as well as overall productivity as others have to stop what they are doing to help them. Our trainers have spent HOURS with one individual and he is still just as lost today as he was the day it was introduced. While he may be more of a management problem, I still see many others who still ask for help for what should be simple things.
Oh that is annoying! We don't have any IT constraints for starting or stopping a Team. That's a great point and a connection to the perceived usefulness of that technology the administrators should really consider. Perhaps they are concerned with the shear number possible Teams.
DeleteUnknown = Melissa Kay Hort
DeleteThanks to Ksu1msm I am now logged into the correct gmail.
Two problems:
ReplyDelete1. I wrote the name backwards in my reference section
2. I am showing up as "unknown."
I will have to address both of these a little later.
Unknown- make sure you are logged in to your account that you used to sign up for the blog. :)
DeleteThank you Ksu1msm!
DeleteCarli-
ReplyDeleteYou note that part of the challenge of the wiki is making sure that the students have enough experience with the wiki to get learning from it and that it should not primarily be about the construction of the wiki. I think this is one of the most important elements of using technology in any classroom. I was to teach a hybrid class once- half online, half in class and some students showed up not knowing that is what they signed up for. I spent so much time trouble shooting the technology in the class, that by the end I mostly gave up and then had to hurry to pack everything crucial into the face-to-face and leave the "extra" material to the online, since not everyone could access it. Bitner & Bitner (2002) cautioned on this element when they wrote their paper many years ago. In their paper, they state that technical support needs to be available to the instructor at all times as instructors cannot leave the rest of the class to entertain themselves when trying to help one student get through their issue. One fix they suggest that is often overlooked is the use of student help. Have students assist other students for these issues when possible so as not to slow the entire class. I have noticed now, many years after teaching this class, that student help is great- it seems when I am in a class and a student remarks they were having difficulty, another student will typically pipe up "That happened to me too" and another student will then yell out the solution that helped for them.
Bitner, N., & Bitner, J. (2002). Integrating technology into the
classroom: 8 keys to success. Journal of Teaching and Teaching
Education, 10(1), 95-100.