Creating a Wiki: A Reflection

Wiki'ing in Primary Education

I've already covered my experience of using a wiki during the De Bono's Hats activity.  The verdict: I need practice.  Like oodles of practice. Now I've never actually put this theory into practice, so this is pure speculation.  BUT.  I suspect that if you provide a classroom full of Grade 6's (the digital natives that they are) with the tools on how to use a wiki they'll take to it like the proverbial duck to water.  Or like a certain ex-Disney starlet to hard drugs and DUI's.  You get the picture.

So I gave it a go.  I've designed a wiki for my theoretical Grade 6 class to help them gather and organise information about renewable energies, with the end goal of them pooling their resources to complete a project on one of the types of alternative energies (wind, hydroelectricity, solar, biomass and geothermal).  Please not that it would definitely need some more work before you would hand over to the kids, but for a rough draft I think I've included the main elements.

Check out my wiki masterpiece by clicking here

In this context, I think the learning potential is really quite vast.  Let me break it down using a PMI analysis:

Pluses: 

• Encourages social learning through collaboration, and gives students a chance to pool their resources and ideas.
• Is accessible 24/7, breaks down the time and physical barriers of the classroom.
• Often leads to improved learning outcomes by allowing students to actively construct their own knowledge (WA Department of Education, 2013). 
• Provides a space to organise and structure their knowledge, if done correctly.
• Using web-based learning tools develop student's online 'netiquette' skills in a world in which the Internet is becoming a dominant method of communication.

Minuses: 

• Potential for students to post inappropriate material, or delete legitimate material.
• Does not allow two students to simultaneously edit the wiki; some information can be lost or edited over.
• The structure of a wiki can be confusing or disorganised, particularly for those who are new to using them. 
• Some students may post incorrect material and lead the group off topic.

Interesting:

• Wikis encourage learners to seek knowledge and decide what is valuable, as opposed to traditional teaching methods in which students were told what knowledge is valuable.
• Wikis are subject to complex issues regarding intellectual property rights due to usually having many authors, making it difficult to prove or attribute ownership.  However, it is in the inherent collaborative nature of a wiki that makes them such a valuable learning tool.

I'm interested to discover how well wikis are used in real classrooms because while I see that they have an enormous potential as a learning tool, there are also a fair number of difficulties to consider.  I think the key to a successful wiki experience will be giving students the freedom to create their learning experience, whilst providing support as they navigate what will be for many of them a new learning tool.

References

WA Department of Education. (2013). Wikis in the Classroom. Retrieved March 29th 2013 from http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/cmis/eval/curriculum/ict/wikis/