CALL SIG 2006 Final Assignment The Use of Wikis in ELT

Carla Raguseo

After working at ARICANAs Computer Lab for a year and a half developing webbased material for a wide range of courses, I decided to join APrIRs CALL SIG in order to learn and experiment with new web tools as well as to discuss their integration in language teaching with a group of like-minded colleagues. During our first session we started exploring the potential of wikis, a fully editable kind of user-generated website which allows multiple users to work and create content collaboratively. After reading some articles describing their main characteristics, we created a group wiki at https://callsig2006.pbwiki.com/ The aim of this paper is to review the features of http://www.pbwiki.com/ and to do further research on how these features can be used to foster interaction and collaborative work in the EFL classroom. PB Wiki Features User authentication is required to access the wiki editor, which consequently allows all users to know who has added, deleted or edited content in the Recent Changes section. Edits and updates are also notified via e-mail. They have a read mode (by default) and an edit mode which is paswordprotected. The edit style takes special wiki syntax although a new point-and-click editor is now available(February 2007) making the editing process more straightforward. The Revision History feature allows users to view previous versions of a page, while the Diff feature highlights the changes between two revisions. Users can easily create internal links to new wiki pages. They allow users to upload images and to embed videos and photo albums. Thay also have a comment feature available for each page which is only visible once the user has logged in. Wikis are a hypertext medium, with non-linear navigational structures (Wikipedia)1. However, content can be organized by editing a sidebar for easy access to pages and a table of contents within each page. Search boxes are also available to find pages through key words. The sandbox section is especially useful for beginners, allowing them to try out codes and editing functions without affecting the actual pages.

Pedagogical Concerns Although the pedagogical implications of such free, open source software are evident for activities that are based on group work, collaborative writing and negotiation of meaning, teachers need to carefully plan and devise the tasks to be carried out in these environments for the experience to be successful while exploiting wikis specific affordances i.e. what a program is capable of doing in terms of both intended and unintended functions (Beatty, 2003)2
1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki

Ken Beatty;Teaching and Researching Computer-assisted Language Learning; Pearson Education (2003)

As Beatty (2003, 149) points out All affordances should be made clear in order to minimize those misaffordances that simply distract the learner. Among other, wiki affordances include: collaboration,peer feedback,editing,refinement and clarification. Another important consideration to be taken into account is the introduction of clear usage guidelines to ensure proper and respectful collaboration among partcipants. By allowing them to edit and publish content, students are given a considerable degree of freedom which they should use in a responsible and sensible way. In the case of the wiki project carried out at Deakin University 3 a list of wiki commandments was included to deter intentional misuse, such as inappropriate posts and deletions. Finally, wikis are a type of social networking software that especially challenges the traditional concepts of copyright, authority and authorship. As seen in recent case studies4 it takes time for teachers and students alike to feel comfortable with collective editing, relaxing control of the contributions they submit on behalf of the collective composition. Educational Applications As was pointed out in the previous section, when designing activities to be developed in a wiki, teachers should make sure the tasks involved call for real collaboration and aim at a collective construction of knowledge which wouldnt be wholly achieved by participants individually. Some common educational applications include: Collaborative Documents Multiple authors edit and update the content of the document and gradually the content becomes a representation of the shared knowledge or beliefs of the contributors (Leuf & Cunningham, 2001).5 The process can take place directly in the wiki where contributions are added as the text is reshaped, edited and revised by the whole community. Alternatively, the original contributions can be posted on another environment, such as a blog, forum, etc. and then compiled and edited by specific participants. Such was the case of a group task carried out by an international group of EFL teachers taking part in Blogging for Beginners (Fig.1), a TESOL EVO (Electronic Village Online) 2007 Session. As an introductory task participants were supposed to attempt a definition of blogs while differentiating them from websites and wikis. The discussion was carried out at the Yahoo Group forum during the first week. Then, a moderator and a volunteer participant compiled a text that reflected the views expressed by all participants. Once the page was published, everybody was invited to revise the draft and refine its content. Likewise, a further discussion took place at the comments section (Fig. 2)
3

Naomi Augar, Ruth Raitman and Wanlei Zhou, Teaching and learning online with wikis, School of Information Technology, Deakin University (2004) http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/perth04/procs/augar.html
4

Andreas Lund and Ole Smrdal, Is There a Space for the Teacher in a WIKI?, InterMedia, University of Oslo (2006) http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/1150000/1149466/p37-lund.pdf? key1=1149466&key2=6250182711&coll=GUIDE&dl=&CFID=15151515&CFTOKEN=6184618
5

(Leuf & Cunningham, 2001) in op.cit.

where the posts reflected reactions to the groups work, messages of appreciation as well as debates on content clarification.

Fig.1. Example of a collaborative document. TESOL EVO 2007 Session Blogging for Beginners Wiki

Fig.2 Example of a comment section. Branching stories Due to its hypertextual structure, wikis have a perfect interface for the development of interactive, choose-your-own-adventure type of story. The reader is actively engaged in decision making at the end of each section. Each choice (link)leads to a new page describing subsequent action. Conclusion The flexible, democratic and highly interlinked structure of wikis make them an ideal environment for the development of collaborative writing projects in the foreign language classroom. Special care should be taken in providing students with enough guidance through an accurate explanation of the available features, clear behaviour guidelines and a relevant, scaffolded task that allows for authentic and meaningful collaboration.

Educational Wiki Projects http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page Wikibooks - A free collection of open-content

textbooks that anyone can edit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiktionary Wiktionary - A multilingual, collaborative,

Web-based project to create a free content dictionary. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiversity Wikiversity - A developing project for the creation and use of free learning materials, and the provision of learning activities.
http://www.memoryarchive.org/en/MemoryArchive Memory Archive - The Encyclopedia of Memories http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiquote Wikiquote - A vast reference of quotations

from prominent people, books and proverbs.

Bibliography
Naomi Augar, Ruth Raitman and Wanlei Zhou, Teaching and learning online with wikis, School of Information Technology, Deakin University (2004)

http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/perth04/procs/augar.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki Ken Beatty;Teaching and Researching Computer-assisted Language Learning; Pearson Eduaction (2003) Andreas Lund and Ole Smrdal, Is There a Space for the Teacher in a WIKI?, InterMedia, University of Oslo (2006) http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/1150000/1149466/p37lund.pdf? key1=1149466&key2=6250182711&coll=GUIDE&dl=&CFID=15151515&CFTOKE N=6184618