Recently, Dr. Bonk, Dr. Lena, and I, we just started a new project about K-12 wikis. This is an unexpected project for the busiest semester but many it is the most interesting thing. 🙂
Why is this research important?
1. Technology integration in teacher education needs more modeling from in service teachers or case studies. I felt frustrated when my undergraduate students said they didn’t see teachers use wikis at school (in Indiana).
2. Similar to reason #1, most of my students heard of wikipedia before but never used a wiki. The concept of wikis – ability to edit others and collaborate with someone else online seem overwhelm some of them. The issues include – (1) they can accidentally delete someone else entry when they try to edit right before class at the same time (2) they complain withing meeting face to face, they don’t feel like colloaborating enough. However, when the opportunity of onlien collaboration was offered, I didn’t say they should only rely on it. I knew some groups met f2f and online, whereas some groups delayed the assignment because online took the initiatives online (lack of leadership or more self-regulatory learning skills needed).
Then, some of preservice teachers developed a very positive attitude of using wikis and believed they would be using wikis in their future teaching. On the other hand, some of them just disliked wikis and said “it may be just too complicated for kids.” I don’t know if this is true. And I think there may be strategies to overcome it if it is too complicated for kids regarding the uses of wikis and the concept of collaboration online, if any. I totally respect their perception. But sometimes I think it is very dangerous for them to make the judgement since most of them haven’t taught and haven’t been amazed by how much kids could master things like this. (From my experience, kids are amazing!)Â If there are a number of class wikis, that would be extremely helpful for them to observe!
What do I want to know?
1. how do teachers use wikis/ why do they want to use wikis/ what wikis do they choose to use and why?
2. to what extend are kids involved in the wikis as well as parents?
3. how much support these teachers have in terms of pschylogical support from school, parents, and others?
What do I expect to learn from this experience?
1. Collaboration with Dr. Bonk and Dr. Lena.
2. Learn more about k-6 wikis
3. Provide wiki cases for preservice teachers
4. Understand the values of wikis in k-6 or k-12 schools
5. Process of writing the paper as well as preparing manuscript for publication.
Extended reading
Wetpaint wikis in education <http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/?t=anon> They have examples and projects linked on the page. Also build an educator community there.
Wikis (for k-12) comparison: <http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6438167.html>
Which wiki is right for you (for k-12, librarians I guess)? They compare Wikispaces, PB wiki, and Wetpaint.
Examples of a k-6 wiki
1. (Wikispaces) <http://4-4adventures.wikispaces.com/> this is a wiki created by a 4th grade teacher. This is also the richest class wiki I’ve seen. He updated the wiki often. Some interesting posts there. For instance, in a sub-page: http://4-4adventures.wikispaces.com/Miss+Kristina I guess kids created the interview questions, and the teacher’s friend answered those (kind of interaction) and then posted the wiki. Very interesting. They used many photos compared to Wikipedia/ wikibooks.
2. (Wetpaints) <http://elementarycollaborative.wetpaint.com/?t=anon> “This will be the site used for a holiday collaborative project with 2nd and 3rd grade classes across the nation. We will complete 3 collaborative projects during the 2008-2009 school year.” They have about 3-4 teachers with 20 students each. So far, I didn’t see much complete projects on the wiki. But I think it will be interesting to talk to them and know how they came up with these ideas.
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