Why+Use+Wikis

Why use Wikis
Community of practice theories perceive learning as an inherently social activity, situated in a social and cultural context (Wenger 1998, 2000). As members of a community pursue a shared enterprise, people participate in a range of practices. It is through engaging in such practices that the group negotiates meanings of what it is to be a member of this community. This is the case whether the community is engaged in an explicitly learning-directed activity or in going about their daily tasks as part of a work community. Acquiring knowledge is understood as an interplay between the community’s socially defined and accepted forms of competence and the individual personal experience that we bring to any particular situation.

Wenger (1998) identifies two key elements in negotiating meaning in a community of practice, notably participation and reification. Participation simply involves mutual engagement with the other members of the group in the business of negotiating meaning. Reification is the process by which elements of practice are congealed into a ‘thing’. Such artefacts could be an explicitly stated set of rules, a drawn diagram of people’s roles, or any form in which practice is formalised so it has some independent life. The practices of a community may be left more to participation or more to reification but both must be present in order to negotiate the meaning of an experience within the community.

Knowledge-building networks Carl Bereiter and Marlene Scardamalia’s work (1994, 2002, 2003) on knowledge-building networks also looks at learning as essentially a social activity. Like the theory of communities of practice, knowledge-building networks take a constructivist view of learning, seeing learning as the result of acting on and in the world. However, Scardamalia (2002) argues that if communities of practice do not have an intentional goal of learning and producing new knowledge, then they descend into what she terms ‘shallow constructivism’, that is, learners are engaged in activities without any deep understanding of why or what they should be trying to learn. From this point of view it is important that activities in a collaborative knowledge building project are focused towards intentional learning and knowledge-production, not simply engaging in undirected shared practices.

Socio-constructivist theory underpins the use of social software in education. The conventional principles of social constructivist learning such as effective learning being conversational in nature makes communication, dialogue and shared activities an important part of learning. This furthers the opportunities for inquiry based and collaborative learning. Similarly, learner centred pedagogies can also be supported with the use of social software because read-write-edit-publish ability of such software enable user/learners to easily generate content that reflects authentic learning, enables peer reviewing and activates scaffolding or mentoring by an educator/mentor.

Collaboration and cooperation encourages active participation among learners and enables a community of practice between educators/academics/practitioners. By sharing and publishing the content with the wider audience, learners become reflective practitioners and through feedback and reviews from peers learn to appropriate new ideas and build confidence in transforming their ideas into published work. This enables personal meaning making through learner self-direction.

Through the Nature of Technology strand, students develop an understanding of technology as a discipline and of how it differs from other disciplines. For example, the participant-students of this project can see Wiki as a technology itself and develop an understanding of how it works and its various possible applications across the wide spectrum of subjects. Students also learn to critique the impact of technology on societies and the environment and their own ability to use it and are able to explore how developments and outcomes are valued by different peoples in different times. As they do so, they come to appreciate the socially embedded nature of technology and become increasingly able to engage with current and historical issues and to explore future scenarios.

Connections
Wikis can build greater connections between new and old knowledge by allowing student-created structure for the information and ideas. Teachers can use Wikis to use the ideas of Bloom's taxonomy: Students use synthesis and evaluation constantly and consistently when they work on a wiki.

Creativity
It is important to build creativity skills, especially elaboration and fluency. Also students develop creative flexibility in accepting others’ edits. it is actually a kind of “hitch-hiking” on ideas - a type of creative elaboration and analytical thinking. At this stage it is viable to Introduce and reinforce the idea that a creative piece as never “done.”

Engagement
Wikis increase engagement of all students. In lieu of being passive “consumers” of their peers’ presentations (where they might doze and ignore), wiki makers respond, respond, change, and improve. Culminating projects no longer have to end.

Interpersonal
Wikis also develop interpersonal and communication skills, especially consensus-building and compromise, in an environment where the product motivates interpersonal problem-solving. thus Wikis could develop true teamwork skills

Writing
Wikis are most useful when students need to Improve what they have written. It will be the most challenging phase of writing process: revision, revision, revision! Wikis increase flexibility to consider other ways of saying things and it also brings an awareness of a wider, more authentic audience.

Meta-cognition
Wikis need to be supported with stimulating discussion and meta-cognition (where developmentally ready). Teachers need to help students articulate issues about ownership, finding, different conceptualizations of the same content. These can be sophisticated challenges, even for the best students.