I had never been very fond of wikis, and avoided using them as much as I could, the reason being the chaos created by many people revising the same text and sometimes ending up creating something really incorrect. Years ago, a colleague of mine started a wiki for professional development, and I opened a page there which I started using with my students. Yet, when I found myself in the world of MOODLE, I forgot all about wikis, and stopped using them altogether.
This module has made me think that wikis have their own use as well. For collaborative work tidily presented to all the readers, wiki must be the solution....Also I did not know that there is a Simple English Wikipedia: http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki . I will definitely suggest this to lower level learners.
And here are my reflections of this module:
Wikis are good for tasks that need planning and coordination. If planning is attempted through e-mail exchanges, the email exchange becomes chaotic, as the important information is scattered around everyone's inbox. With a wiki, coordination is easy....as the text is edited and chaos is avoided, on the condition that the users are trained in using wikis.
The most famous wiki, Wikipedia, is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other projects:
Commons: Free media repository, Wikiquote: Collection of quotations, Wikiversity: Free learning materials and activities, Wikibooks: Free textbooks and manuals, Wikisource: Free-content library, Wiktionary: Dictionary and thesaurus, Wikinews: Free-content news, Wikispecies: Directory of species, Meta-Wiki: Wikimedia project coordination
To use wikis educationally, the STOLEN principle could be useful:
Specific Overall Objective
Clear objective for the wiki
The wiki needs to have a simple clear objective - a clear purpose, explaining the benefits of either contributing to it, or the benefits of the end product once produced.
Understood by all
All people editing the wiki must understand the objectives, to allow them to edit the wiki in accordance with these objectives.
Not a 'general' area
Although ideologically there would be some merit in giving people a 'blank space' for them to explore their thoughts and possibilities, in reality with the relatively small number of students on any one course, module or unit - a 'blank space' is unlikely to magically get converted into a media rich knowledge bank like wikipedia
(Here is an addition I consider important)
Grading strategy
If your wiki is not graded, that's fine. But if you plan on grading your students on their work on the wiki, establish some rules ahead of time so students can be aware of what they will be graded on. You might have to assign individual or group spaces in addition to a common space.
(Mathieu Plourde, Instructional Designer, University of Delaware)
Timely
Definitive times for different 'stages' of use
It is very easy for this sort of activity to 'get put off until I have more time'. To avoid this, setting intermediate deadlines, is advantageous. Sending reminders (e.g. emails) will usually trigger a rush of activity so can be used as a mechanism to keep up a wikis momentum.
Definite end point - even if left open after
Resources like Wikipedia have no definitive end point, the resource will continue ad infinitum When creating a wiki for educational use, it is unlikely that such a resource will get created or be useful, so wikis should be set up for specific purpose, with a specific end point. There isn't a problem with leaving the wiki open afterwards, nor is their a problem with people continuing to edit the resource, as this would also be ideal.
Ownership
People need to feel that they 'collaboratively own' the wiki
Students will create highly imaginative blogs, Myspace or Facebook areas - because they belong to the students, and these areas are a reflection of them and their personality. To get high levels of creativity in a wiki, then creating some element of ownership can be advantageous, although there is a risk that this 'ownership' if individual will inhibit the collaborative nature of the wiki.
The conclusion therefore is to try to create a 'collaborative ownership'. This could be done by using language appropriate to the natural language of the group, or by having a soft touch when moderating the activity on the wiki. Another option is to designate certain areas to certain participants (of groups of participants) - it may be possible to make the exerise competitive, with different groups set a challenge of creating a resource that is 'better than other groups'. This will depend on the nature of the groups involved and will require deligence from the tutor.
Localised objective
Some structure of what is expected
Wikipedia has evolved organically, effectively with no starting structure, however this has only been possible by the high numbers of people involved in the editing of the site. This model will not replicate itself at a smaller level with an educational wiki. Therefore the wiki creator will benefit from creating some structure of what is expected - this could be some headings to use, an example page etc.
Starting points for editing
For most people wikis are new concepts, and the thought of this collaborative editing is daunting to many, especially if presented with a 'blank canvas' - it is therefore beneficial to create some starting points for the students to edit - this will probably be linked to the structure that is being created.
Engagement rules
Who can edit
Some people will be nervous about editing, so reinforcing who can (and is desired to) edit the wiki should be made obvious on the site.
Which parts they can edit
Clear guidance on which parts can (and is desired to) be edited should be made clear and obvious on the site.
Acceptable and unacceptable use
Depending on the ages and nature of the people who will be editing the wiki, it may be beneficial to provide some acceptable and unacceptable use guidance. This would benefit from not be presented in a formal 'Thou shall not' style, but could be incorporated in other information (e.g the purpose of the wiki) and should definitely be 'light touch'.
Navigation
Clear navigation structure
One of the beauties of wikis is the way that they 'grow organically' however this often results in different people creating different styles of navigation structure, which can result in confusing navigation.
The wiki moderator could create their own structure for people to follow - which should ease this problem, but may inhibit the 'freedom' of the site. The best that someone can do when using a wiki educationally, is look at what they have created through the eyes of the students, or ask a colleague, friend, relative to look at.
Simple navigation
As well as the navigation being clear, it will ideally be simple, usually this means not too many clicks to find a specific part f the wiki, but balanced by not having a long list of links or information. With some wiki providers it is possible to create menu pages, which sit at the side of the wiki - these can be used to help with the navigational structure.
Finally, it was nice to open a personal wiki after quite a bit of time:
http://nilgunhancioglueldridge.wikispaces.com/
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