Using a Wiki to Enhance Knowing Participation in Change in the Teaching-Learning Process

Howard K. Butcher, RN; PhD, APRN-BCAssociate Professor

The University of Iowa College of Nursinghoward-butcher@uiowa.edu

http://roqeriannursingscience.wikispaces.com/

Janette Y. Taylor, ARNP; PhDAssociate Professor

The University of Iowa College of Nursingianette-tavlor@uiowa.edu

Collaboration powers knowing participation in change.

The notion that overarchingconceptual and scientific systemsprovide a guiding framework for allaspects of our being in the world hasbeen well accepted ever since thepublication of Kuhn's (1962)landmark work The Structure ofScientific Revolutions. Explicating aRogerian cosmology and philosophy,especially the ontology andepistemology, and the developmentof research and practice methodsthat flow directly from these tenets,has been the major focus of the firstauthors work grounded in Rogers'science of unitary human beings. Forexample, the unitary field patternportrait research method (Butcher,2006a, 2005, 1998) and the unitarypattern-based praxis model (Butcher,2006b) are examples of researchand practice methods derived fromRogers' ontology and epistemology.In addition to the development ofresearch and practice

methodologies, the science ofunitary human beings also providesan ontological and epistemologicalfoundation for developing pedagogy.Pedagogy is the art or profession of

teaching (American HeritageDictionary, 2000). Yet, to this datelittle has been written concerning thedevelopment of Rogerian scienceinformed pedagogies.

This paper examines the use of awiki, a fairly new, easy to use, andrevolutionary web-based tooldesigned to assist people in workingtogether in virtual environments. Awiki is an example of a teachingstrategy grounded in a participatorypedagogy and serves as an idealexample of a teaching strategy thatis consistent with Rogers'participatory epistemology and aRogerian nursing science informedpedagogy.

The Participatory Paradigm andEpistemology

When developing the Rogerianscience informed unitary field patternportrait (UFPP) research method.Butcher made the case that theontology and epistemology of Gubaand Lincoln's (1989) constructivistparadigm was consistent withRogers' ontology and epistemology.Guba and Lincoln's (1989) criteria forconstructivist inquiry were used as a

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guide for developing a set of criteriafor Rogerian scientific inquiry(Butcher, 1994). The Rogerianscientific inquiry criteria were used todevelop the processes of the UFPPresearch method. Butcher (1994)also identified two "participatorymetaphors" to provide insight into thenature of Rogers' epistemology:kaleidoscope and symphony. Laterworks, particularly the writingsSkolimowski (1994) and Heron andReason (1997), provided furthersupport for the congruence ofRogers' epistemology (Butcher,2006) and what is now referred to asthe "participatory paradigm" by Guba& Lincoln (2005).

The participatory paradigm ischaracterized by a participativeobjective-subjective co-createdreality and an epistemology thatplaces emphasis on criticalsubjectivity arrived at through"participatory transaction with thecosmos" leading to co-creation ofexperiential, propositional, andpractical knowledge (Guba &Lincoln, 2005). In particular, theparticipatory epistemology placesemphasis, as does Rogers, on theuniqueness of every human beingand personal knowing. In additionthe participatory paradigm focuseson transformation, engagement, andmultiple realities in the same wayRogerian science is concerned withchange, mutual process, andpandimensionality. Heron andReason (1997) point out thatmethodologies which placeemphasis on collaborative andparticipatory action are grounded ina shared experiential context, andflow from a participatory ontologyand epistemology. Co-operative

inquiry (Reason, 1994; Heron, 1996),participatory action research (Fals-Borda & Rahman, 1991); fourthgeneration evaluation (Guba &Lincoln, 1989) and appreciativeinquiry (Cooperrider & Srivastva,1987), are examples of modes ofinquiry grounded in a participatoryparadigm. Given the similaritiesbetween the participatory paradigmand Rogers' ontology andepistemology, these methods haveoffered insight into development ofresearch and practice methodologiesconsistent with the science of unitaryhuman beings (see Butcher, 1998;Caroboni, 1995; Cowling, 2001).

Rogerian EpistemologyEpistemology describes the

nature of knowledge (AmericanHeritage Dictionary, 2000). Theprinciples of the Rogerianparticipatory epistemology (seeTable 1) have been explicated in anumber of Butcher's works, mostrecently in an article describing aunitary pattern-based praxis modelthat is designed to guide Rogerianpractice in both research and apatient care contexts (Butcher,2006). The postulate of integralityand the idea of mutual process arecentral to Rogerian science. Thedynamic and integral nature ofhuman and environmental fieldsengaged in continuous mutualprocess supports the idea thatmutual process is participation and inthe Rogerian epistemology,knowledge is pattern. Furthermore,knowledge in the form of pattern, isco-created in the human-environmental mutual field process.Pattern (knowledge) unfoldsdynamically, continuously, andnonlinearly.

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Table 1. Rogers' Participatory Epistemology

• Apprehension of manifestations of patterning emerging from thehuman/environmental energy field mutual process is the source ofinformation and knowledge.

• Pattern is apprehended in the form of experiences, perceptions,and expressions.

• Pattern is irreducible to parts and is unique to each human andenvironmental field

• Pattern emerges from the human/environmental mutual fieldprocess with "kaleidoscopic uncertainty" (Rogers, 1970, p. 91).Thus, pattern is dynamic, rhythmical, continuously changing,nonlinear, and therefore, unpredictable.

• Multiple modes of awareness including intuition, mysticalexperience, tacit knowing, and other emergent and extraordinarypandimensional ways of knowing including telepathy,clairvoyance, and remote viewing are additional ways to graspknowledge that extend beyond the five senses.

Source: Butcher, H. K. (2006a). Unitary pattern-based praxis: A nexus ofRogerian cosmology, philosophy, and science. Visions: The Journal ofRogerian Nursing Science, 14 {2), 8-33.

Participatory PedagogyLike research and practice

methods, teaching-learningpedagogies also are derived fromparticular ontological andepistemological stances. Withinparticipatory and constructivistpedagogies, learning is a mutual,dialogical process where knowledgeis co-created and constructed bymultidimensional selves using toolswithin context created by the variouscommunities with which they interact(Duffy & Cunningham, 1996; Freire,1970; hooks, 1994). Proponents ofthe participatory and transformativepedagogies stress the importance oftools and practices that facilitate

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mutual group encounters that giverise to the creation of newknowledge (Reo, 2006). Hooks(1994) encourages educators to"serve as a catalyst that callseveryone to become more and moreengaged, to become activeparticipants in learning" (p. 11). Shefurther states that teaching shouldenable transgression or movementagainst and beyond boundaries.Therefore, teaching strategies thatplace primary emphasis on:collaboration; creative and sharedmutual construction of knowledge;peer learning; student self-organization, and buildingcooperative and open learning

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communities are common practicesin participatory and transformativepedagogies. The use of participatorysoftware, such as wiki, is one ofseveral exciting revolutionaryelectronic Web 2.0 platforms thatcan augment a collaborative learningprocess and help overcome thebarriers in distance learning as wellas enhance communication andcollaboration in classroom basedteaching environments.

Web 2.0While strict hierarchical lines of

authority have not vanished,powerful new models of productionare arising based on ideasconsistent with a participatoryontology. Web 2.0, also sometimesreferred to as the "living web,Hypernet, active Web, or theread/write Web," is a revolutionarynew platform for collaborationenabling people to network and worktogether in online communities. InDecember 2006, Time Magazineannounced that "You" was the"Person of the Year" stating that,"you control the information age."Time's person of the year cover storyspecifically addressed wikis, likeWikipedia, along with YouTube,Blogs, MySpace, and Flickr asexamples of "Web 2.0's" new "digitaldemocracy" and declared "the newWeb is a very different thing. It's atool for bringing together the smallcontributions of millions of peopleand making them matter" (p. 40). Inthe same Time Magazine issue,Steven Johnson noted "Web 1.0 isorganized around pages" ofinformation, while "Web 2.0 isorganized around people" (p. 80).Already, millions of cybernauts use

chat rooms, weblogs, podcasting,and Really Simple Syndication(RSS) feeds. Thomas Friedman(2007), in his highly popular bookThe World is Flat: A Brief History ofthe Twenty-first Century, identifiesWeb 2.0 technologies as part of anew global platform of collaborationand as one of the ten forces thathave "flattened the world." Friedman(2007) uses the term flattening toillustrate "equalizing power—andopportunity, by giving so manypeople the tools and ability toconnect, compete, and collaborate"(p. x). According to Friedman (2007)"the convergence of the 10flatteners" has created a whole newweb-enabled global platform "thatenables individuals, groups,companies, and universitiesanywhere in the world tocollaborate—^for the purposes ofinnovation, production, education,research, entertainment. . . that nowoperates without regard togeography, distance, time, and in thenear future, even language" (p. 204).

Tapscott and Williams (2006) intheir book Wikinomics: How MassCollaboration Changes Everythingdescribe how the "new web hasopened the floodgates to aworldwide explosion of participation(p. 19)." The web is no longer aboutidly surfing and passively reading,listening, or watching, rather theWeb is transforming into aninnovative way of sharing,socializing, collaborating, and mostof all, creating within connectedcommunities. Web 2.0 is aboutcreating virtual communities that areparticipatory, emergent, in mutualprocess is based on principles ofopenness, peering, sharing, and

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acting globally. Wikis are one of theprimary innovative Web 2.0 tools thatallow for mass communication andcollaboration.

WikiA wiki is a website in which users

can create and collaboratively view,edit, track changes, and saveinformation by using a web browser.No special software is needed andcontributors do not need to knowcomplicated programminglanguages. "Wiki" is the Hawaiianword for "quick," and the name of therapid bus service between terminalsat Honolulu International Airport.Ward Cunningham, creator of thewiki idea, was looking for arecognizable, unique name andfound it while traveling in Hawaii. Inthe relatively short time since hecreated the first wiki, WikiWikiWeb,(or wiki for short) on March 25, 1995(Choate, 2008), wiki has grown intoone of the most important tools ineducational, business,entrepreneurial, and researchsettings. Wiki enables teams ofindividuals to work togethercollaboratively on projects, solveproblems, and design and createnew products. Enterprise wikis ofteninclude strict security to protectconfidential information using finegrained permissions restrictingaccess to the website so only thoseindividuals with passwordauthentication and sign-on privilegescan access the appropriate spacesand pages on the website.

Stewart Mader (2008), a selfproclaimed "wiki evangelist" andauthor of Wikipatterns: A PracticalGuide to Improving Productivity andCollaboration in Your Organizationexplains that a wiki truly resembles

the Hawaiian bus service. Peoplecan easily come and go, some mightmake small edits which are akin toriding the bus route for just one ortwo stops, while others might createnew pages or make significantcontributions and revisions to anexiting one, much like traveling theentire route on the bus. The wiki, likethe bus itself, enables people toinhabit the same space (the page),and see the same thing (the text)they are all editing at the same time.Unlike email, which "pushes"discrete copies of the sameinformation to each person and thenrequires a combination of separaterevisions, a wiki "pulls" peopletogether to work simultaneously onthe same text (Mader, 2008). Froman initial seed, all users can add to,expand, and edit content forimprovement of the content. Everychange is recorded so that theprogress of a document can beeasily tracked across interactionsand through different authors. Sincea wiki tracks and saves all versionsof the text, nothing is ever lost.Everyone can view the earlierversions of a document and reviewtheir peers' changes. Moreinterestingly, tracking the edits on awiki demonstrates how knowledgehas grown and refined over thelifetime of a project.

The Wikipedia ExampleChances are that if you have not

heard of a wiki, you have heard ofWikipedia. Wikipedia is the mostrecognizable wiki and is an onlineencyclopedia that anyone can edit.Wikipedia is the largest encyclopediaever created - print or electronic(Mader, 2008). As of February 2008,

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Wikipedia is comprised of articles in229 languages, including 2,192,000articles in English, 612,000 articles inFrench, and 700,000 articles inGerman (www.wikipedia.org).Wikipedia is one instance of how wikitechnology can be used, and is themost open application possible,since anyone with an Internetconnection can edit Wikipediacontent, and can do soanonymously. This may soundradical at first, but the spirit of theidea is that a wiki enablescollaboration on an unprecedentedlevel, and can be applied to a myriadof different situations in education.

Because Wikipedia is such a wellknown example of a wiki, peoplenew to the idea of using a wiki ineducation or any academicenterprise may be influenced by theway Wikipedia is used and think allwikis are fraught with all or some ofthe pitfalls they have heard about:vandalism or deleting content,posting incorrect information, or rudeand hostile comments. However,organizational, educational, orenterprise wiki sites are often, bynecessity, very different fromWikipedia. Wikipedia pitfalls are veryunlikely to occur in an educationalsetting because the wiki is beingused in an established social andorganizational structure and isdesigned to accomplish work that isimportant to achieving specific goalsfor which all the participants will beheld accountable. For example,editing on a wiki for educationalpurposes often needs to berestricted to a particular group ofstudents and anonymity is notnecessary since a wiki enablesdiscussion and collaboration on a

project. It is best when everyoneknows who is making contributionsand changes to the documentbecause all students shareresponsibility for the accuracy of thecontent.

Wiki PrinciplesWikis are powerful tools that

enhance connectedness,collaboration, and knowledgeconstruction. Tapscott and Williams(2006) identified four "wikinomic"principles: being open; peering,sharing, and acting globally.Wikinomics is defined as "a new artand science of collaboration"(Tapscott & Williams, 2006, p. 18).Not only do the wikinomic principleshelp in developing a deeperunderstanding of the nature andpower of wikis, they also resonatewith the ideas of openness, mutualprocess, patterning,pandimensionality, acceleratingchange, and non-linearity that areinherent to Rogers' participatoryepistemology.

Being open. Wikis are inherentlyopen. This means that wikis allow fortransparency, freedom, flexibility,expansiveness, engagement andaccess (Tapscott & Williams, 2006).Openness allows all group membersimmediate, and equal access to themost recent version of the document.Openness allows for transparencysince changes in the document canbe tracked and individuals who madethe edit may be easily identified. Thetransparency inherent in the wikiprocess opens up the secrecy andanonymous changes to content thatcan plague organizations and groupprocesses. Disclosure fromtransparency fosters trust among the

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participants since all are accountablefor the changes to the content on thewiki site and can view who madeeach change in the document. Wikisallow for the incrementaldevelopment of content as eachparticipant, collaborator,shareholder, partner contributes tothe document. The content itselfbecomes ever changing andemergent as the projects evolvesthrough the multiple edits, additions,deletions, and revising.

Interestingly, wikis originatedwithin the "open source" movement,meaning that wiki software wasdeveloped collaboratively usingguaranteed access to the sourcecode and distributed at no cost.Allowing multiple developers tocollaborate created a culture ofcooperation and has acceleratedinnovation and product development.The Linux operating system,Mozilla's Firefox web browser, andthe MySQL for data bases just threeexamples of literally thousands ofsoftware products developed throughopen source access. One benefit ofsharing the source code is that morepeople can view the code and locateand solve problems. Wikis work thesame way in terms of contentdevelopment. The more people youhave that can both read and edit the"open" document, the more likelyerrors will be identified and corrected(Choate, 2008).

A number of "free" wiki softwareproducts are available. Writeboard,PBWiki, StikiPad, JotSpot,WikiSpaces, wetpaint, Wikia,BluWiki, Wikicities, XWiki, andWikidot are examples of either freeor low cost "hosted" wiki sites whereanyone can create a webpage and

determine who can have openaccess to the content. JotSpot, acommercially developed wiki, wasrecently bought by Google and isnow part of Google's core services.Some universities, such as theUniversity of Iowa, have or are in theprocess of creating their own wikisites for faculty and students.

There is no limit or boundary tothe evolution of a particular wiki.Some wikis are still open to anyoneand are continuously evolving, likeWikipedia. Ward Cunningham'soriginal wiki site (http://c2.com/ppr) isstill open and now has over 30,000pages exploring all aspects of "wikiagenda" that he initiated in 1995. Forthe purpose of a course assignment,the wiki can have a set deadlinewhen the assignment is to becompleted and submitted to theclass and/or instructor. You maywish to have a wiki in whicheveryone in the class has openaccess or you may have the classwork in groups where only themembers of each group have accessto their group wiki. As the instructor,you determine the purpose andcontent to be developed for theassignment.

Mader (2006) writes in Using Wikiin Education (wikieducation.com) "asdifferent editors — student,administrator, instructor — contributeto a wiki document, this samegradual layering of knowledgeoccurs. This underlines thefundamental power of a wiki. Asyllabus can be created not by aninstructor alone, but also by teachingassistants, other instructors, evenstudents." A small group or hundredsof students can contribute to a classproject, discussion topic, report.

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research paper, or a schoolnewspaper. "The one-to-many modelof knowledge transfer can betransformed into a collaborative,many-to-many network where everyvoice contributes to the knowledge ofthe group; the sum becomes greaterthan its parts" (Mader, 2006). Whenparticipants feel the content iscomplete, they can either print thewebpage content or export the filefrom the wiki as a Word document.

Peerinq. A second principle ofWikinomics is peering, or peerproduction, which refers to how awiki brings people together tocollaborate, not in the traditionalhierarchical formation, but rather in amore horizontal and egalitarian peer-to-peer mutual process (Tapscott &Williams, 2006). In addition, unliketraditional content managementsystems where users have distinctroles and the content creators areseparate from the content users orreaders, a wiki allows both creatorsand users all to be equal (Choate,2008). This notion of theinseparability of the creators andusers is similar to the integral natureof the researcher and the researcherinto in the Rogerian epistemology.Essentially, a wiki allows for groupauthoring, thus all participants areaccountable for all the content.

Peering involves participationalong horizontal lines and is a way ofcreating knowledge, goods, orservices through dynamic sharedexperiences using the collectiveintelligence of the investedcommunity. The peer productionprocess of adding to, editing, and co-creating the wiki content means thedocument is incremental, open,living, and organic. However, the wiki

group process is synergistic withmultiple group members workingsimultaneously, changes in thecontent can make sudden, non-linear, unpredictable shifts. Thesesudden shifts most often happen asthe deadline for completing theproject nears. As the deadline forcompleting the assignmentapproaches, an increasing numberof group members become intenselyengaged in the collaborative mutualprocess. They turn their attentionaway from working on "their section"toward looking at the document moreas a unitary whole and contribute toeach of the other sections. As thedue date becomes more imminent,changes in the document tend toaccelerate, often morphing thecontent in exciting and unpredictableways, which can dramaticallyimprove the quality of the finalproduct.

The openness of the wiki allowsfor self-organization and peeringsucceeds because it leverages self-organization. Students figure out away to organize as they develop thecontent. The group progress can bemonitored on the wiki site, so theteacher can make helpfulsuggestions or elect to refrain frominterfering with their process.Typically, group members divide thecontent into sections so that eachmember has responsibility for a part,with the understanding thatultimately, everyone contributes toeach of the sections.

An important aspect of the wiki isthe change of consciousness about"ownership" because, although eachstudent may be responsible forposting a section, as the instructoryou can help the students

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understand that "their section" is itnot really "their content," rather allthe content belongs to the membersof the group. Thus, the idea of thewiki is to shift thinking about contentfrom "my content" to "our content."Living here in Iowa, an appropriateanalogy illustrates the goal of thewiki assignment is not about workingin silos, but in an open field. A fieldthat is not divided into small plots,with each working only in one's ownplot (section or assigned question),but rather everybody is working ineverybody's "plot" to improve thecontent as they work towards apolished and complete finaldocument. In this way, everyone isaccountable for knowing andcontributing to all the content and thedocument becomes an irreducibleunitary whole for each participant.Students work together to edit, addto, and modify each other's sectionswith the intent to improve thecontent. While there often is some

initial discomfort about editingcontent someone else has posted onthe wiki site, the instructor can offera set of guidelines termed "Wikinetiquette" (see Table 2) to helpmake the editing process morecomfortable, open, transparent,respectful, and consensual forparticipants.

Peering also means wikiparticipants engage in their own"peer review" process of reviewingand critiquing each other's contentas it is developed. Group peeringplaces emphasis on open andhonest communication and meansthe group is mutually responsible forsolving problems that arise. Peeringinvolves each student beingresponsible for their "part" but moreimportantly, being held accountableto everyone in the group bycontributing to the whole. Groupmembers work together to build andedit the document on a wiki.

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Table 2. Sample Wiki Netiquette Guidelines

1. Remember the wiki is meant to be scholastic in nature. Thismeans that you should try to avoid writing simple opinions - backup writing with sources and information. As well entries should bespelling and grammar checked.

2. Delete and edit other entries with care. Only edit other people'sentries if you havesomething constructive to add that improvesand/or expands the content.

3. Treat others, the content, and the comments of others withrespect.

4. Refrain from using offensive or vulgar statements or images.5. Wiki presentations are collaboratively authored - which means

they don't have bylines. Everyone in the group "owns" the contentcollectively, so place all names on the title page.

6. Try to refrain from using terminology that refers to "my" or "your"content or section.

7. Workload should be shared as equally as possible.8. Everyone is to contribute in some constructive way to all wiki

"sections."

page, thus strengthening the senseof community within the group, andallowing group members withoverlapping or similar ideas to viewand collaboratively build on eachother's work

Non-linearity is also inherent in awiki because a wiki document allowsthe inclusion of hypertext links, whichone can use to make conceptual orkeyword links from the wiki to anyother web pages in cyberspace.Choate (2008) notes that while it iscomforting to view a wiki as a self-organizing "organic process, withorder arising out of chaos naturally,"every wiki does need tending or whatChoate refers to a "gardening" (p.171). A wiki needs to be tended to bythe instructor in order for it to thrive.This may take the form of offeringguidance to students if they need: 1)to be redirected back toward thetopic or intended purpose of the

assignment; 2) help identifying gapsor other areas of content that need tobe explored; 3) insight andencouragement; 4) reminders aboutthe purpose of the process; and 5) tobe reminded when the WikiNetiquette guidelines are not beingfollowed.

Sharing. Sharing is inherent inwikis, and like openness, sharing iscentral to Rogerian science. Sharingthe mutually constructed patternprofile with participants is a centralprocess in the Unitary Field PatternPortrait research method and isconsistent with Rogers' participatoryepistemology. Sharing of knowledgeand content enhances knowingparticipation in change. Rather thancontrolling, protecting, andconcealing one's proprietaryresources and innovations, Tapscottand Williams (2006) assert thatcontributing "to the commons" is the

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"best way to build vibrant businessecosystems that harness a sharedfoundation of technology andknowledge to accelerate growth andinnovation" (p. 27). In the teaching-learning process, peer-to-peersharing exponentially increases thelearning of new content becausestudents are working together towarda common goal and learning fromeach other's shared expertise ascontent is added to the wikidocument. Participants can notreduce their knowledge to the partthey may have initially beenresponsible for, but must also read,critique, add, and edit the contentthroughout the entire document. Inthis way, sharing is what allows forthe quality of the content to becomemore than what any one personcould do working independently.Sharing enables the document tobecome more and different from thesum of the individual contributions ofeach group member. Sharing alsocontributes to the dynamic nature ofa wiki. Content evolves, and as it isshared, it is modified, and sharedagain (Choate, 2008). Since allparticipants have access at all times,the wiki document is actuallycontinuously being shared. Sharingand mutual participation in creatingthe work is what moves participantsaway from thinking "look at the greatarticle or section I wrote" to "look atthe great article we wrote." Woodsand Thoeny (2007) note that sharedauthorship and ownership of the wikicreated content is often profoundlyunnatural at first since we are allsocialized to think of the writingprocess as a solitary processreflecting the content of our ownminds. When you are involved in a

wiki process, this solitary perspectivefades and is replaced with a greatersense of collective pride.

Acting Globallv. The fourthWikinomics principle identified byTapscott and Williams (2006) is inconcert with the ever acceleratingpace of globalization. Friedman(2007) explains, we are now enteringa third phase of globalization. Hetermed "Globalization 3.0," to mean"we are now connecting all theknowledge centers on the planettogether into one global network . . .which could usher in an amazing eraof prosperity, innovation, andcollaboration, by companies,communities, and individuals"(p. 8).According to Friedman (2007), thisnew globalization is unique becauseit is characterized by a "newfoundpower for individuals to collaborate .. . and the phenomenon is enabling,empowering and enjoiningindividuals and small groups to goglobal so easily and seamlessly" (p.10). No longer is the mantra just"think globally, act locally," but actglobally as well (Tapscott & Williams,2006, p. 29).

Friedman's description of howglobal networks are "flattening theworld" resonates with Teilhard deChardin's (1959) holistic andsynthesizing vision of Earth'sevolutionary unfolding into a neworgan of consciousness he called thenoosphere. The noosphere on aplanetary level is analogous to theevolution of the cerebral cortex inhumans. The noosphere is a"planetary thinking network" - aninterlinked system of consciousnessand information, a global net of self-awareness, instantaneous feedback,and planetary communication.

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Rogers' (1970) evolutionary ideasabout the nature of changeexpressed in the postulates of helicyand resonancy, as well as her theoryof accelerating evolution were clearlyinfluenced by Teilhard de Chardin.Rogers referenced to his work in herseminal text An Introduction to theTheoretical Basis of Nursing. At thetime of de Chardin's writings in the1940s and 1950s and even at thetime of Rogers work in the 1960sand 1970s, computers wereimpractical massive complexes usedby few people and the Internet wasnonexistent. Nevertheless, Teilhardde Chardin imagined a stage ofevolution characterized by a complexmembrane of information envelopingthe globe and fueled by humanconsciousness.

We live in an intertwined world offiber optic cables, telephone lines,wireless satellite-basedtransmissions, interconnectedcomputers, information services andinformation repositories that allowone to travel electronically in theblink of an eye. Kreisberg (1995)pointed out that Teilhard deChardin's (1959) complexity-consciousness law is the same aswhat we now think of as the neuralnet. We now know from neural-nettechnology that when there are moreconnections between points in asystem, and there is greater strengthbetween these connections, therewill be sudden leaps in intelligence. Ifone accepts this power ofconnections, then the planetaryneural-network of the Internet isfertile soil for the emergence of aglobal intelligence. Today, humanityis at the beginning of Teilhard deChardin's (1959) third phase of

evolution, the moment at which theworld is covered with theincandescent glow of consciousness.Teilhard de Chardin's (1959) thirdphase of evolution is a vision of acollective humankind, greater thanthe sum of its parts, a continuousprocess of synthesis upon synthesistoward increasing complexification,an evolving super-consciousness,leading directly to a new domain ofpsychical expansion, the hyper-personal, and what he referred to asthe "Omega." Web 2.0 is the newarchitecture of a unitary worldview inwhich human beings, integral witheach other and the universe, arecontinuously evolving unpredictablytoward infinite diversity andinnovativeness. Wikis, along withother Web 2.0 tools, are the greatglobal collectivizers of minds, andare the primary tools for ouremergence into the Teilhard's (1959)third phase and Friedman's (2007)"Globalization 3.0."

Wiki in EducationCollaboration, sharing,

exchanging precompetitioninformation, and a peer orientatedapproach to producing knowledge isnot new to academia. However, thewiki process has unlimited potentialfor accelerating mutual collaborationamong educators and researchers.Wikis can be used to furtherenhance the work of faculty inacademic settings by building web-based open collaborativeenvironments for: 1) creatingknowledge infrastructures to fostercollaborative content initiatives likecourse, curriculum development,policy development and standarddevelopment; 2) creating virtual

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scientific networks; and 3)connecting research anddevelopment groups in a masscollaboration virtual work space(Tapscott & Williams, 2006). Forexample, grants and manuscriptscan be written and edited on a wikisite. Typically, multiple versions ofdocument are frequently sent backand forth via email amongparticipants using track changes. Awiki website reduces emailexchanges, overcomes potentialtechnological problems ofdownloading and openingattachments, and eliminatesconfusion about what version of thedocument one should be working on.

Students are often immersed in acompetitive learning environmentthat offers limited peering, sharing,and collaborative knowledge creatingexperiences. A wiki, however,enables students to work together ina way that improve collaboration andfosters knowledge sharing.

Students might use a wiki tocollaborate on a group report,compile data or share the results oftheir research, while faculty mightuse the wiki to collaboratively authorthe structure and curriculum of acourse. A sample of the instructionsfor a wiki assignment used to teach atheory course as the University ofIowa College of Nursing is availablefrom the authors.

Toward a Rogerian Nursing Science-guided Pedagogy

A Rogerian-based pedagogyflows from the principles in Rogers'participatory epistemology. Within ina Rogerian-guided pedagogy,knowledge is conceptualized aspattern. Teaching-learning, or the

transfer of knowledge, occurs in theform of experiences, perceptions,and expressions and usespandimensional modes ofawareness. All participants, meaningteacher-students, are integral to oneand other, and are engaged inmutual teaching-learning process.Teaching is designed to enhanceknowing participation in change.

Barrett (1989) conceptualizedpower and knowing participation inchange within Rogers' unitaryperspective. Power is the capacityto participate in the nature of changecharacterized by continuouspatterning of human-environmentalfields as manifest by awareness,choices, freedom to act intentionality,and involvement in creatingchanges. Knowledge is power, andpower is a natural continuous themein the flow of life experience. Poweroffers a way to understand howhuman beings participate with theenvironment to actualize theirpotentials. Nurse educators, inmutual process with learners, worksto mutually design patterningstrategies which facilitateawareness, choices, freedom to act,and involvement in the acquisition ofnew knowledge. Therefore,strategies that optimize activecollaborative student participationthe teaching-learning process aremost consistent with a Rogerian-guided pedagogy. Wiki-ing in ateaching-learning context is aparticipatory strategy that occurs inopen, boundaryless, and virtualpandimensional reality whereparticipants actively engage in acontinuous collaborative mutualprocess enhancing knowingparticipation in change.

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ConclusionThe age of participations has

arrived. Students of today and Net-Generation students of tomorrow,need to be prepared to live and workin the emerging participatory culture.A new energy in education is arising.Mass collaboration is a new way forstudents, in fact all people toconnect, self-organize, and createsynergistic learning communities.Wikis are, as Choate (2008) states"clearly participatory" (p. 4) andprovide an exceptional way to fosterhigher order learning skills such asstudent collaboration, synthesis,reflection, and consensus building.Wikis allow students to harness theircollective intelligence becoming co-creators, co-authors, and co-innovators.

ReferencesAmerican Heritage Dictionary (2000). Fourth

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