Literature on Wikis

This literature is complied from several sources.

New Literacies Instruction in Teacher Education

Literacy is defined as a relative, rather than absolute, range of knowledge and skills for reading, writing, communicating and critical thinking (International Literacy Institute, 2002, p. 9).

According to the Partnership of 21st Century Skills, new literacy is the ability to use ICTs to develop 21st century content knowledge and skills critical for success in the workplace and in life. The new literacy is an additional set of basic skills essential for surviving in a digital networked environment

New literacies encompass several types of literacies:
• Technology literacy: The ability to use the Internet to access and communicate information.
• Information literacy: The ability to research and analyze information to make valid decisions.
• Media literacy: The ability to produce, distribute and evaluate audio/video content.
• Global literacy: The understanding of the interdependence of people all over the
world and the ability to participate in global interactions and collaboration.
• Social competence and responsibility literacy: An awareness of the need for safety and privacy associated with uses of the Internet
https://www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm04/erm0452.asp

According to Ward Cunningham, originator of the wiki paradigm, a wiki is "the simplest online database that could possibly work." [1] This statement expresses one of the goals of the wiki paradigm, which is to provide user interface functionality in the simplest way possible. The benefit of simplicity in our case is that users can master system functionality quickly, and focus their energies on the collaborative development of content.


In 1999, the World Wide Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee looked back on the previous decade and lamented: "I wanted the Web to be what I call an interactive space where everybody can edit. And I started saying “interactive,” and then I read in the media that the Web was great because it was “interactive,” meaning you could click. This was not what I meant by interactivity.

Features that are unique to a wiki…
• Anyone can change anything. Wikis are quick because the processes of reading and editing are combined. Authoring software, permissions, or passwords are typically not required.
• Wikis use simplified hypertext markup. Wikis have their own markup language that essentially strips HTML down to its simplest elements. Raw URLs typically require no markup tags at all to be rendered live on a wiki page.
• WikiPageTitlesAreMashedTogether. Linking to related pages is easy, which promotes promiscuous interlinking among wiki pages.
• What’s unique about wikis is that users define for themselves how their processes and groups will develop, usually by making things up as they go along.


• links wikis into its course management system authoring environment so that design teams can quickly and collaboratively build reference lists and outlines, brainstorm instructional strategies, and capture suggestions.
• store and organize content for a major new job posting and career development Web site that it is developing.
• the users decided for themselves how the wiki would fulfill their objectives. Technical support and training was minimal: at most, one hour of instruction was needed, and in most cases, orientation was handled by a single e-mail.
• Whereas "hard security" functions by restricting access or hiding pages, wikis save copies of successively edited versions; thus, work that has been deleted or defaced can be recovered with a couple clicks of the mouse.
• In addition to fostering the development of writing skills as they are already understood, wikis may prove to be invaluable for teaching the rhetoric of emergent technologies.
• an instructor could structure and regulate interaction to such an extent that the wiki is effectively transformed into a stripped-down course management system. But doing so risks diluting the special qualities that make wikis worth using in the first place, with the result being, in the words of Heather James, "pumped-up PowerPoint."
• This particular challenge bears resemblance to the one posed by constructivist teaching philosophy. To truly empower students within collaborative or coconstructed activities requires the teacher to relinquish some degree of control over those activities.
• . It’s not that authority can’t be imposed on a wiki, but doing so undermines the effectivene
http://ascilite.org.au/conferences/perth04/procs/augar.html


Wikis can be used to facilitate computer supported collaborative learning, CSCL. CSCL, first noted in the early 1990s, is the development of collaboration by means of technology to augment education and research. CSCL promotes peer interaction and facilitates the sharing and distribution of knowledge and expertise amongst a group of learners (Lipponen, 2002). Collaborative learning exercises are student centred and enable students to share authority and empower themselves with the responsibility of building on their foundational knowledge (Myers, 1991). Students can use wikis to create a set of documents that reflect the shared knowledge of the learning group. Wikis can also be used to facilitate the dissemination of information, to enable the exchange of ideas and to facilitate group interaction.


Extending the Wiki Paradigm for Use in the Classroom
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.proxy2.cl.msu.edu:2047/iel5/9035/28682/01286462.pdf?isnumber=28682&prod=CNF&arnumber=1286462&arSt=+255&ared=+259+Vol.1&arAuthor=Chien-min+Wang%3B+Turner%2C+D.

Wiki collaboration systems encourage student-centered learning environments, because they encourage students to be co-creators of course content. There area few properties of traditional wiki systems that are not desirable in the context of the classroom:
• all content is modifiable by any user,
• all content is public, There is a danger of publishing inappropriate or private information. It is quite easy to link from a blog dashboard to other blogs that may deal with inappropriate or indecent topics. The freedom to publish carries the responsibility of ethical and socially appropriate uses of web publication.
• simultaneous edits are allowed but not successful,
• and the wiki is forever evolving. -
• the most common objection to wikis is the typical absence of an explicit organizing structure.
• anybody can spot a wiki page from "a mile away," any wikis tend toward plainness, but there’s no reason that more pleasing fonts, colors, and layouts can’t be accommodated through the judicious application of Cascading Style Sheets
• In the context of the classroom, these properties are not always desirable.


http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue42/tonkin/

One person wiki
They can map concepts; wikis are extremely useful for brainstorming. Exploring a topic by means of a wikiweb is a curiously comfortable feeling, and often very rewarding. Authoring a wiki on a given topic produces a linked network of web pages roughly analogous to a concept map, a visual technique for representing knowledge and information. More can be read about concept mapping in Novak's online introduction

Nonetheless, a single user wiki is a marvellous way of collecting and presenting information over a period of time.

Update for 9.18.07

Goal: We have to choose an area and identify what we want to identify.
Start by categorizing the wikis by the functions that they serve (for educational purposes) For example, which wikis are best to use in a teaching setting, which are better for archival information and why?

We want to create a page that people can choose tools from a page and customize it so it based on their functional needs and audience.

Also, outside of class is this the way people choose to communicate? What social tools are they using?

These are the key functions our cms/wiki must have and points we must evaluate:

• Provide a model for research grants, outreach (College Alumni Association Portal), and teaching
• Why does the user come to and keep returning to the site? Each portal will have some overlap as well as unique answers.
  

We discussed MediaWiki and whether the user interface is easy for the user. For non-technical users pseudo-programming is required. Ease of use is important. From our observation, we found this style of wiki is great for looking up archived information or research articles (i.e. Wikipedia), the search function is excellent; key words are highlighted as well as listed in context. but may not be as great for conducting class through.


We also looked at ned.com as a good example of an outreach portal. It is powered by http://sourceforge.net/projects/open-qon

Updates:

• Received an account on MSU's server to practice with MediaWiki
• Have a meeting on Wednesday with WIDE center
• Received more replies on my mini-survey
• Will be making follow up calls this week to people I have received no response from

Questions

• Should I be thinking about making a student survey to find out how they use wikis/cms inside and outside of class?
  

Notes

Things we are trying to find out:

• Principles supporting the wiki/portal.


• Resources available for project to be initialized.


• Who would be interested in using the wiki/portal?


• Resources on who to ask
  
  I either sent out an email or directly spoke with most of these people (some I am in the process of trying to reach) with the following questions




• Do you have a wiki of preference?  


• If so which one do you use and why?


• What features does it offer that you like?  I am doing research for a project and any feedback you have would be most appreciated.








 








• Matt Koehler




• Uses mediawiki


• http://oms.educ.msu.edu/vidiawiki/index.php?title=Main_Page




• Scott Schopieray Media Resource Group




• http://oms.educ.msu.edu/wikis.html


• OMS.EDUC.MSU.EDU is a server setup to explore the possibilities of electronic type for teaching and research. The three main applications run on OMS are Mediawiki, DSpace and CMap Tools. All of these programs are open source projects supported by a vast user community.


• Many using wikispaces for ease of use.




• Cherice Montgomery
  
  TE Tech Support Team Leader




• Uses wikispaces for ease of use.




• Douglas O’Dell –
  
  Adobe


• Lars Torres -
  
  Researcher, Non-profit sector
  
  My preferred hosted service was http://www.jot.com/ until google bought it. waiting to see what the new version looks like. I used it because it had a very web2.0 interface, could import documents, and integrated with project management tools.   (Jotspot can’t be accessed right now while google is integrating it with their services).
  
  I don't use a hosted wiki right now. If i need to collaborate on a document or use wiki-likeness i go to ned.com and use their plone implementation. not so easy for newbies (bad) but super fast, clean and stable for me (good :).  if i had to install my own wiki tomorrow, I would use mediawiki -uses all the good wiki convensions, can be easily skinned, and is stable.


• DC Web Women


• Thom Gillespie                       
  
  Professor, Indiana University




• Uses mediawiki for ease of use




• Nicold Pittman  Tech Support Media River




• Uses wiki that is incorporated into a customized CMS




• Jeff Garbill Rhetoric and Writing (WIDE Center Staff)




• Has their own wikiserver (awaiting followup interview)




• John Walber – Partner, LearningTimes.org


• Theresa Redd CETLA – Professor Howard University


• EPET Students


• Cheryl Spears – CS Professor Auburn University


• Curtis Lovett, Independent Contractor/Programmer

Packages (Don’t focus on the packages, but what features they offer from a user’s standpoint).

http://www.wikimatrix.org/index.php

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

Meeting with Dr. Johnson

Projects he mentioned

• Journal of Deaf Studies/Deaf Education


• Research on Child Abuse and Neglect


• TIE Internship (Language Assessment with Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students.  All students have i-visit. http://www.ivisit.com/ which is integrated in to wikispaces.




• Ivisit info - Combine video conferencing, voice calls, instant messaging, AVMessaging, filesharing and web co-browsing for richer online meetings with family, colleagues or customers.  Transfer files and folders in the background; share your albums and movies with family and friends. Bypass email and experience the benefits of iVisit security


• Use problem based learning approach via case studies


• Analyzing how students in the space become better learners.  Meta-analysis occurs and is documented by participants.  Participants function as a community of learners


• Wikispaces is used for sharing information (between 5 students across the country)  felt it is




• Collaborative


• Easy for learners to use


• Works cross platform


• Assessible






• He felt mediawiki was not intuitive enough for his core audience which includes people from the community (Parents, teachers, students)  People need to be able to do the basics in 5 minutes.