Wikis are considered a web 2.0 writing application that is based in social interaction and collaboration (Alexander, 2006). Wikis support collaboration as users can enter the wiki, edit content, create links, create pages and build off of the thoughts of others. In our Module 4 Unit 1 activity, we were asked to have a discussion based in the class wiki concerning “sightings” of social media in our classroom experience and to identify the strengths and challenges of engaging students with social media in an educational environment.
It was interesting and fun to use a web 2.0 social media tool to examine issues in social media. I felt it was a nice merge of theory-into-practice. However, I notices that wiki content was developed individually for sightings and that people, including myself, posted their name beside their wiki entry. I thought the exercise would involve editing content without a sense of ownership, but sightings were personal and I felt “rude” editing someone’s entry with my own thoughts. Due to this format, the wiki discussion was very similar to the Web CT/Vista threaded discussions in the forums. In this exercise, there was little difference between a traditional forum and a wiki.
In the second activity, we co-edited content and collectively identified five strengths and five weaknesses of engaging students with web 2.0 social media in an educational environment. This activity worked very well in the wiki environment. I made two suggestions, did not include my name, and did not feel upset when they were edited by other collaborators. The ideas improved over the course of the week, and I feel satisfied with the overall process.
Generally, I feel the difficulty in this task was in encouraging collaboration in the wiki environment. Although the threaded discussion brought out great insights, it would have been more collaborative if we initially structured our content contributions outside of the “discussion” box. Perhaps our initial wiki posts should have been generalized, with headings like “cellphones in class”, then we could co-edit a paragraph on sightings concerning the issue. Also, in our class we “signed” our edits. Signing our names is a great way to identify who is participating or who to respond to, but at the same time it takes away from the collaborative and collective spirit. If I were to use a wiki in class, I would give students a general instruction of sign/don’t sign and provide them with a starting example. I teach lower-elementary, and I think a little guidance would go a long way.
I think the Module 4 Unit 1 activity was a great success because it forced us to participate in the web 2.0 social media environment and really work through the issues. We can read about the theory of wikis and social media, but this activity showed us how to use a wiki for an educational activity. Feel free to visit my toolkit reflection on wikis which I completed before this activity.