Friday, April 21, 2023 1

Creating Wikis to Enhance K-12 Teaching

Dr. Ming ZhangCentral Michigan UniversityCT Conference, March 22, 2010

Friday, April 21, 2023 2

Purposes of the Presentation

• Introduce Web 2.0 in general and wiki in particular in educational settings.

• Demonstrate the steps for signing up wikis.

• Introduce the steps for running wikis.• Learn how to manage K-12 wikis.• Share my experience of using Wikis

Friday, April 21, 2023 3

What is Web 2.0?

Friday, April 21, 2023 4

What is Web 2.0?

1. Web 1.0 is “first generation web” (Cormode & Krishnamurthy, 2008)

– “Read-only”– One way communication.

2. Web 2.0 is a term coined in 2004– characterizing a transition to a “read-and-

write” Web 2.0 (McManus, 2005).

Friday, April 21, 2023 5

What is Web 2.0?

• "Web 2.0" is perceived as a second generation of web development and web design (Wikipedia). It is also called “participatory webparticipatory web”.

• Web 2.0 includes social networks (e.g., Facebook, My Space), media sharing (e.g., YouTube, Flickr), social bookmarking (Delicious, CiteULike), collaborative knowledge construction (Wikipedia), creative works (podcast, blogs), and microblogs (Twitter).

Friday, April 21, 2023 6

What Is a Wiki?

• A wiki, as a form of participatory web, is an online collaborative writing tool (West & West, 2009).

• See the video.• Wiki is getting particularly popular in

educational settings. • There are two commonly used sites:

– www.pbworks.com/ – www.wikispaces.com/

Friday, April 21, 2023 7

Some Examples

• Examples of Elementary Schools:1. Ms. Fletcher

2. Mr. Hanrahan's 6th Grade

3. Maplewood Music

• Examples of Junior High Schools1. Mr. Bullis Science

2. Mrs. Mailloux Language Arts

Friday, April 21, 2023 8

www.pbworks.com

• How to sign up

• Access to the wiki (How to invite)

• Level of access (Security control)

Friday, April 21, 2023 9

Building Your Wiki

• How to post your content

Friday, April 21, 2023 10

Building Your Wiki

• Create pages

• Post content

• Create a blog

• Add a calendar

• Let students comment

Friday, April 21, 2023 11

How Are You Using PBworks?

• We've created a collaborative environment that allows teachers and students to see multiple models of outstanding writing.  Prior to using the workspace, teachers who wanted to highlight a well-written student response, needed to first copy it and then, make a transparency. Frequently, the text was illegible in places and because of the amount of work involved and time constraints only one or two student models were displayed.  

• We know from research that the more student models writers see, the more rich and well-written responses we receive.  PBworks provides the means for students to view multiple models 24/7 and as a result, to independently assess and improve their written responses.  In addition, the collaborative environment facilitates the development of peer review and editing skills.

Friday, April 21, 2023 12

Example of Collaboration

In example, In the class wiki, a page was created with a list of website links (possible sources for innovative uses of technology). An assignment, “Webliography” was designed as a class collaboration project.

Friday, April 21, 2023 13

Example of Leaving Comments

• A student create an individual wiki for posting her projects. – Invite and give permission to their

classmates for sharing and leaving comments.

Friday, April 21, 2023 14

Teaching and Learning Using Wikis

• Step 5: Term Project: A unit of lesson plans with innovative uses of technology.– Post the unit;– Critique each other’s unit.

Friday, April 21, 2023 15

Example of Learning Blogs

• Individual learning blogs and reflection in her wikis throughout the whole course.

Friday, April 21, 2023 16

Issues Related to Teaching and Learning through Wiki

• While teaching the course, we encountered the following issues:

• Students’ confidence and skills in using technology in general and wiki in particular plays a key role for the success of the learning.

• Wikis enhance students’ participation and creative practice (Greenhow, 2009).

Friday, April 21, 2023 17

Issues Related to Teaching and Learning through Wiki

• Communication among students plays a key role to successful learning.

• There might be unexpected changes in the features provided by the free wiki service.

• Students share more responsibilities in learning. • Accessing to classmates’ wiki is not only an

platform of learning and information source but also creating peer pressure when some classmates did and posted an outstanding webliography assignment.

Friday, April 21, 2023 18

Observations of Learning and Teaching Using Wikis

In the process of teaching and interaction with students, we have the following observations:

• Wiki is effective in supporting collaborative creativity.

• Wiki has various functions catering distance education.

• Students could feel isolated when faced technical problems.

Friday, April 21, 2023 19

Observations of Learning and Teaching Using Wikis

• Making screen movie clips using Jing (screen casting) is a very effective and efficient way of solving technical and procedural problems.

• Learning experience of using wiki is not even among students.

• Students feel a strong support by their peer in the wiki learning community.

• Students’ blog is an effective tool for reflection on learning.

Friday, April 21, 2023 20