V08s: Learning together: introducing wikis

The objectives of this course activity are to

• become more familiar with wikis
• understand the role of wikis in supporting collaboration in learning.

Before the facilitated session, read the document ‘7 things you should know about wikis’.

Reflect on the sections ‘Why is it significant?’ and ‘What are the downsides?’ In the context of your group of learners, think about how you can make use of wikis as a tool in collaborative activities and what safeguards you may have to think about to ensure any wiki space works effectively and safely. Make some notes that include opportunities or concerns you have identified around the use of wikis with your learners from your reading so far.

The objective of this course activity is to become more aware of research that has been carried out into the use of wikis in secondary schools in England.

The article 'Using Wikis in Schools: a Case Study' is a case study of wiki use for collaboration in a Gloucestershire secondary school. It is a research paper, and has sections relating to background literature and methodology. You may want to read the whole paper; however, if you want to just dip in and pull out the most relevant content, the findings section begins on page 5.

Read through the Findings section and the conclusion. Focus on the students’ behaviour and response to the opportunity to contribute to the wiki. Do any of the anecdotes and examples resonate with your experience with your own learners?

Make notes from your reading that include any further thoughts on how your learners would respond to using wikis collaboratively.

The objective of this course activity is to understand the issues identified by Becta in the use and management of wikis in classroom situations.

In 2008, Becta published the results of a study of the use of Web 2.0 tools in Key Stage 3 and 4 classrooms. You can access this report here. This is a lengthy report covering all aspects of Web 2.0 tools (including social networking and blogging) but there are some sections that focus on the use of wikis.Go to page 20 of the report for statistics relating to teacher perceptions of wikis and experiences of their use in the classroom. Reflect on the final bullet point that relates to use of wikis and their management. Think about whether wiki management could be an issue for you and your learners and how you might deal with this, for example, creating wikis for smaller groups and introducing a code of conduct. Add to your notes from the previous activities any further thoughts arising from your reading.

Go to page 34 and read the section that considers the issues of private versus collaborative learning. An important point is made here about some learners who prefer their own private space for learning and therefore find it difficult to engage in collaborative activities. Reflect on whether any of your learners may have this preference and could find collaboration through a wiki to be difficult. Could you encourage such learners to become involved by careful selection of a small group of students to work on a wiki-based activity? Again, add any thoughts you have to your notes.

(Optional reading) You may be interested in the wider use of Web 2.0 tools in school and the Becta report covers a wide range of these so read on for more information. If you would like to learn more about these tools post a message in the Vital community forum to request more courses related to the use of Web 2.0 tools in secondary school classrooms.

The objectives of this course activity are to:

• make contact with participants of the face-to-face
• share ideas emerging from the course so far.

As explained by your facilitator in the face-to-face session, the course forum is available to all participants in the course after the end of the two hour facilitated session.

Go to the forum and post a message to the other participants. You may wish to reflect on the course so far, or post some ideas that have emerged from your planning of how to create appropriate projects or activities for learners to engage with on a wiki.

The objective of this course activity is to make use of some of the ideas shared in the face-to-face session together with your reading to plan teaching and learning activities that could be carried out collaboratively using a wiki.

The face-to-face session introduced some ideas for collaboration using a wiki. You may have already thought of some activities that your learners could engage with that will allow them to contribute collaboratively through wiki pages that you will provide. Think now about an actual activity that could give you and your learners opportunity to work together on wiki-based collaboration.

You may want to divide your large group of learners into smaller groups that may be deliberately structured to work together effectively. Each group could have one small activity to work on that altogether makes a larger project. For example, small groups of learners could take measurements locally of environmental or community-related factors, for example, amount of litter, different availability of public transport, or local provision of facilities. These could then be added to the wiki to generate a larger data set. Students could find out one historical fact about their local city, town or village and add it to the wiki. A project on war poetry could include asking each learner to find one war poem they like and add it to the wiki.

Plan your collaborative activity, keeping it simple if it is the first time you have used a wiki, and work out how you will divide your learners into groups. Several groups will need several wiki pages.

You can share your ideas for activities, and find out more about what other participants on this course have thought about, by visiting the forum and posting a message.

The objectives of this course activity are to discuss and agree what we have learnt as a group.

Go to the course forum and, in the Discussion called ‘Shared Learning’, post the key learning points that have emerged for you during the course. With your facilitator, agree on the common shared learning from the group.

The objectives of this course activity are to complete an evaluation form and, if you wish, print a course completion certificate and rate and review the course

Your task is to complete the evaluation questionnaire, which can be found on the course page. There are also links there to print a certificate and rate the course. The certificate will be ‘released’ by your facilitator.