Wikis in Writing Classes

". . . wiki software presents an ideal platform for generating reading and writing assignments that encourage language awareness in the literary domain" (Farabaugh 41, 2007, emphasis added)

Michelle Navarre Cleary, Suzanne Sanders-Betzold, Polly Hoover, and Peggy St. John, Wiki researchers, voice the following conclusions and recommendations after working with Wikis in Writing-Intensive Classes. They can be useful and instrumental to teachers who are considering to use this technology.

"No tech expertise required
Wikis really are easy to use and getting easier. Of the four of us, only Polly is close to being a techie, but none of us found wikis difficult to use.

Do not expect a miracle
Wikis will not solve all teaching challenges. We all know this, of course, but somehow this fact is easy to forget amid all the talk of wikis as ideal. In the real world of our classes, we found wikis to be a valuable addition to our tools for helping students develop as writers and for building a collaborative learning community.

Get a partner
Most instructors will be more adventurous, improve faster and have more fun if they try wikis with a partner or two. While it would be nice to be teaching one class together, team teaching is often not an option. However, instructors can use a shared wiki to connect students across classes. For example, different sections of a college writing class might collaborate on a wiki journal showcasing their work, or literature and history students studying the same period might build a wiki about the major conflicts of that period. Even if the teachers' students do not work together, learning to use wikis with other faculty will give teachers the benefits of collaboration, as noted in What Suzanne expected and got, when she discusses introducing other colleagues to wikis.

Do a demo
Instructors should spend some time during initial class meetings showing students how wikis work and giving them some simple, low-stakes tasks that let them practice on a wiki — with the instructor available to offer coaching. In these demos, we stress the ease of using wikis, show students other wikis as examples of what they could do, and model how to edit and collaborate on wikis.

Encourage student ownership
Throughout our initial experience with wikis, we solicited feedback from our students and colleagues. We learned from them what worked best. For example, some students liked the idea of having an online archive of all the work they completed in the class. Therefore, we encouraged others to use the wiki in this way. Other students liked using wikis as a communication tool and as a way to access assignments.

Let students drive content as well as form
Teachers also can encourage student ownership and take advantage of the learner-centric potential of wikis by letting students create wikis on topics and with formatting of their choosing. For example, the conduct manual assignment dictates the type of writing students will do, but it lets students choose their topic, audience and how they will structure their wiki.

Make the wiki count
Nearly all students respond to grades. Therefore, we encouraged students to get in the habit of using the wiki by giving early required assignments and posting readings and resources exclusively on the wiki. In this way, we gave students a clear purpose for accessing and using the wiki. We also encourage other instructors to give incentives for ongoing revision on the wiki. These incentives can be grade-based, but are best when they appeal to students' intrinsic motivations by taking advantage of the audiences wikis make available. For example, most students will revise more if they know a wiki will be used by other classes or published to the web.

Use wikis to develop metacognition
Instructors should have students reflect upon what they have learned about the intended subject matter, about working collaboratively and about writing from their wiki work. In other words, take advantage of the ways wikis encourage metacognitive thinking by asking students to articulate and discuss this thinking with each other.

Don't forget what you already know
In any other context, teachers know that students need coaching when embarking on collaborative work, or peer revision, or writing in a new genre. So instructors looking to implement wikis in the classroom should not repeat the mistake Michelle made when she let the new technology blind her to the need for this coaching."

Reference
"KairosWikis WikiResearch / Conclusion." Issue 14.1 (Fall 2009) - Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy. Web. 13 Dec. 2009. http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WikiResearch/Conclusion.