Blake: Work Priorities

Wikis may also foster Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) which is collaboration with technology to enhance the learning experience. Lipponen (2002) asserts that CSCL assists in the facilitation of peer interaction and shared knowledge among learners. (Augar, Raitman, and Zhou, 2004) Augar et al. claim that Wikis are an appropriate tool to promote collaboration in the online environment. They used Wikis as a tool for facilitating social interaction through an online icebreaker exercise at Deakin University in Victoria, Australia.

Ten students were placed into Wiki groups along with an online facilitator. The icebreaker Wiki contained information about the group’s online facilitator to introduce the instructor, to model appropriate use of the Wiki, and to establish social presence, a critical element of fostering positive online engagement to avoid a sense of isolation. The icebreaker contained several questions to assist students in finding and responding to other students with similarities. Students were able to connect with the facilitator and other students through the icebreaker event by posting responses, replies to questions, biographies, and personal photographs.

Wikis have multiple purposes, from expediting information to the masses, as reliable sources and information on the Pandemic Bird Flu, (Masie, 2006) to students working collaboratively to create knowledge in a particular domain that may be shared with other students in a particular academic discipline. Several institutions, including Georgia Tech, have been using Wikis for a number of years to promote knowledge sharing and collaboration.

There is perhaps another way that Wikis may be used to foster collaboration and that is service learning.

E-service Learning
Strait & Sauer (2004) discovered a critical need to address online education for teacher education students. The shortage of teachers in the United States and the barriers to rural and urban students who cannot attend a traditional campus-based teacher education program led to Bemidji State University’s Distributed Learning in Teacher Education (DLiTE) program. Service learning, termed as e-service, has been integrated into the teacher education courses at the beginning of the second semester. Students engage in reflection about their e-service through discussion boards, group projects, and journals. While the students found the e-service component a valuable experience, the community partners welcomed their help and assistance.

Online students become involved and knowledgeable of their own community needs while developing beneficial skills in an online learning environment. (Strait et al. 2004) When asked to recall the highlight of academic careers, students will remember a project which involved their time, energy, and passion. (Stevens et al. 1992) When e-service is implemented into a program, students may well recall the learning and service process of the experience. While the DLiTE program did not use Wikis, there are a number of ways that Wikis may be considered when incorporating service learning into an online course.

Wikis, Online Learning, and e-service
Students can be grouped in Wikis according to a particular kind of community service so that those with common service projects can share ideas, relate the theories, concepts, and methodologies to the e-service, and assist one another in brainstorming and problem solving. Wikis would provide that essential collaborative space for students to interact and create a sense of community, avoiding the sometimes impersonal feel of online education. Wikis would provide a place for reflection with text, graphics, and images that allow for more interaction and visual cues versus only text-based discussion. Future students in the program could benefit from former students’ e-service experiences and expand upon the existing reflections and knowledge by adding their own contributions to the Wiki.

Wikis were introduced in a graduate Technology Education course in the spring of 2006 to explore possibilities of how Wikis may be used in Technology Education courses.

Wiki survey among graduate students
Every two years the Technology Education program at North Carolina State University offers “Creative Problem Solving,” a graduate course, taught by Dr. Richard Peterson, in the masters and doctoral program. The course delivered a presentation on the use of Wikis incorporating e-learning and service learning in Technology Education programs in higher education. After the presentation, graduate students, divided into groups consisting of three students, had to solve an ill-defined problem related to Technology Education.

To generate possible solutions, groups worked on their problems using seedWiki.com. The individual students then had to complete a survey reflecting upon their experience using a Wiki and possible implications of Wikis being used for Technology Education courses.

Visit full article for survey findings