WIKIs have a wide variety of uses and are in my opinion the most useful way of engaging students in collaborative work. With WIKIs, students are able to work as a team through managing ideas, splitting work, and posting acivities. I have already gone through several instances in my mind for where WIKIs would be useful in a classroom, whether it be for an entire class WIKI where I answer queries from students, to students controlling their own WIKI sites where they submit group assessments.
I believe that this has a lot to do with Engagement Theory. Engagement Theory is about meaningfully engaging students in worthwhile tasks in a group atmosphere with the assistance of technology. When this engagement is present, then actvities that allow students to create, problem-solve, reason, make decisions and evaluate become easier. Students become more motivated with technologies such as WIKIs and therefore learn more.
I recently did Learning Experience with a group of students who, when introduced to the idea of doing their work in the form of a WIKI, jumped at the chance to control the presentation of their work, as one student put it, it was like "controlling my destiny".
Kearsley, G & Shneiderman, B (1999, April), Engagement Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning, Maryland, http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm
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Hi Damian
ReplyDeleteI like the way you succinctly describe the benefits of this e-learning tool that I agree can encourage students to work co-operatively on a group project. There's a saying 'two heads are better than one' which takes on a real meaning in the case of producing a Wiki. As a group project, 4-6 students working on a Wiki sounds like a manageable way of producing a Group assignment.
Thanks Emma,
ReplyDeleteYou have made some excellent points, adding to my blog your expertise in the area.
Regards, Damian.