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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?