Wikis in Schools

Here is an article about the educational value of wikis in schools:

http://www.pgce.soton.ac.uk/ict/NewPGCE/PDFs/Wikis_in_Schools.pdf

For those of you new to the term 'wiki', it is a website which allows its members to add and edit content. The best known example of a 'wiki' is http://www.wikipedia.org/. The philosophy behind a wiki is that collective knowledge is more powerful than individual knowledge. Currently, the students on my PGCE course belong to a wiki, and I am confident that it will be a great place to share ideas. In a classroom context, wikis can support group collaboration and also motivate children to write and to take responsibility for their written work, because they know their writing has a potentially large audience. Due to the fact that you can edit the content, it can be a powerful tool to introduce children to the editing process.

Furthermore, the fact that the world is changing so dramatically - faster than ever before - means that we need to prepare children for jobs that do not yet exisit! This is a scary thought indeed, but instead of being too scared to change the curriculum, we need to embrace new technology in schools so that children are best prepared for the 'information age.' The nature of wikis encourgages children to access information and reflect upon it at a quick pace, and in a medium in fitting with the technologically advanced world in which we live. Therefore, wikis are becoming increasingly recognised as important learning tools in schools.

Wikis can be seen as another form of social software and although we must promote the advantages of such software in schools, we must also teach children about the dangers. We must not simply ignore the fact that increasing numbers of children are members of social networking sites. Instead of shying away from this fact, we should educate children of the dangers of sharing personal information on the web. In a school environment, I would not allow children to post any personal information on the wikis.

The article backs up its thesis that wikis have significant educational value, with research in the area of communities of practice and knowledge-building networks. This research suggests that children learn best in social situations and through collaborative work because they construct meanings together and further their understanding by learning from each other's ideas. This is in fitting with the constructivist view of education which underpins majority of education in English classrooms. Furthermore, the research suggests that in order to maximise learning, the children's work must be set in a 'real' context and have a 'real' purpose. When a piece of work is handed in only for the teacher to read, there is no real incentive to produce a great piece of work besides the teacher's approval. But if a piece of work is done that has a potentially worldwide audience, suddenly the incentive to do well soars!! I feel that this is one of the most powerful arguments for the use of wikis in schools.

The only disadvantage I can see, and also what came up in the findings to the investigation in this article, is that children could use the wiki as a place to publically slate somebody's work or opinions in a malicious way. However, I think this kind of problem can be resolved by having some 'cyberbullying' work shops, and some discussions about the appropriateness of what to write on the internet.

Despite the fact that there is not a lot of research into the use of wikis in education, I feel that there are many advantages to support its use. I will certainly be encourgaing the use of wikis in my classroom.