Wikis in the Classroom

Using Digital Tools for Improving Seminars

S. Rajaratnam School for International Studies

Paul T. Mitchell

Agenda

• What is a Wiki?

• The challenge of Seminars

• The Southernigloo site

• How do I make my own Wiki?

What is a Wiki?

• Wiki – Hawaiian word meaning “Quick”• Ward Cunningham• Method for sharing and organizing

ideas, and collaborative writing• A wiki (IPA: [ˈwɪ.kiː] or [ˈwiː.kiː][1]) is a website that allows visitors to

add, remove, and edit content (OED, added 16 March 2007)

• Limited knowledge of code• Rapid, easy editing

Range of Wikis

Research Wikis

• Collaboratively author journal articles.

• Easily track information sources and bibliography.

• Track projects on the wiki.

Agenda

• What is a Wiki?

• The challenge of Seminars

• The Southernigloo site

• How do I make my own Wiki?

The Seminar Approach

• Seminars, Lectures, and Information

• Master/Apprentice vs. Partnership

• “I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance”: truth and authority

• The “circle of knowledge”: risk and understanding

Responsible Partners

• Teacher:– Ask questions– Clarify points– Suggest resources

• Student– Come prepared– Willing to participate

Seminar Questions

• How did you get on?

• Why?

• What do you think?

• Exploring the boundaries of knowledge

Seminar Challenges

• Vulnerability– Lack of Preparation– Second Language– Insecurity

• Uncertainty– The Silent Classroom– Class Capability– The Lecture Temptation

Oh the pain!

• Seminar challenges both the teacher and student– Student is placed on the spot: what

do you know?– Teacher is placed on the spot: how

fast can you respond?– Credibility of each is on the line

Agenda

• What is a Wiki?

• The challenge of Seminars

• The Southernigloo site

• How do I make my own Wiki?

Southernigloo

Functions

• Course Syllabi

• Joint Projects

• Recent Papers

Classroom Use

• Vulnerability and Uncertainty• Creating Dialogue• Breaking the Ice: Comments Page

– Already exposed– Already primed

• Classroom “Intelligence”• Who to ask?

– Favouritism, burn out, and preparation

• Biotechnology example• Proliferation example

Student reaction

• “The Wiki site was something new, but was useful as a place to write up unanswered questions or disagreements. I thought class discussion worked best when the Wiki site was displayed on the projector as it helped keep the discussion ordered.”

Student Reaction

• “I enjoyed the use of a Wiki site, which forced us to be interactive even outside class.”

Some negative points

• “when it involves a large class, it makes the wiki quite difficult to work with. I often hear of people finding their posts missing and so on, and not being able to log on at the same time etc... So it doesn't seem very attractive to me in that sense. I was thinking a sort of multi-user blog would be more effective, and individuals can post their comments and receive responses on their particular comment (and be notified by email as well) But of course it may not be as organized as Wikis unless we can use sub pages or tags.”

Agenda

• What is a Wiki?

• The challenge of Seminars

• The Southernigloo site

• How do I make my own Wiki?

How to?

• Choose a “Wiki Farm”– Wikipedia lists 51 different ones with

comparisons– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

List_of_wiki_farms

Security?

• Can anyone read my wiki?– Private and public wikis

• Can anyone edit my wiki?– Passwords

• Is the information secure on my wiki?– Indexing, caching, and spambots

• More information here

Have fun

• Take advantage of collaborative features– Joint class projects– Encorporate new media and

resources– Encourage experimentation– See what happens

Questions?