The reading materials of this week were helpful to understand the impact of wikis among Internet users. Wikipedia is one of the famous wikis that include more than 12 million articles in different languages (King & Cox, 2011). It is important to identify some of the pros and cons of wikis for adult learners. A big advantage of wikis is building a collaborative environment among users no matters their place or time. This tool might be used to improve the students' engagement with learning materials in face-to-face classes as learning activities outside the classroom. In addition, instructors in online courses can use wikis as a learning option. West & West (2009) they mentioned that “Wikis are designed to help group collaborate, share, and build online content, and are especially useful for distance learners who are separated by time and place” (p.3). Easy to use is a great feature for wikis, users can work together in a wiki with less technical skills. It is a useful way to save learners time and energy to focus on learning purposes instead of facing technical troubles with complicated tools (King & Cox, 2011).
There are some disadvantages of using Wikis. One of the problems with wikis is that educators have less control over the content. For example, students may post inaccurate information or not related to the learning topic. According to King and Cox (2011) “Wikis can be very useful in educational settings, but the limitation of this tool is that it can be edited by any individual who may post inappropriate or irrelevant content to the wiki”(p.123). Another limitation of a wiki is that some users feel unconfirmable to share their thoughts and work online. This problem would decrease the freedom of users. (King and Cox,2011). Finally, From an educational perspective, I would like to provide a learning tool that allows my students to feel comfortable to ensure better participating.
References
King, K. & Cox, T. (2011). The professor’s guide to taming technology. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
West, J. and West, M. (2009). Using Wikis for online collaboration: The power of the read-write Web. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Tariq- I find that we highlighted very similar advantages and disadvantages for Wikis in adult education. I agree that wikis offer a very user-friendly, online space for asynchronous learning and collaboration. I personally enjoy the security/privacy of the LMS-based wikis and find that it can be a very interactive and creative way to work on group projects. I truly appreciate how the wiki starts off as a space to share our individual ideas, and it is very neat to see how this morphs over time to a common understanding. I believe that one disadvantages or challenges for the learners that are using wiki is to make sure that they are not "over writing" or removing the original thoughts of some of their group members, so that the project truly remains collaborative. It can be challenging as the educator to assess the participation of all of the group members and identify if any of the learners voices are being "stifled" by other dominant group members. What are your thoughts?
ReplyDeleteHello,
DeleteI like your question, it is an important point to be considered when using wikis. " It can be challenging as the educator to assess the participation of all of the group members and identify if any of the learners voices are being "stifled" by other dominant group members."
I think adult learners have enough experience and knowledge on how to work as a group to come up with thoughts that represent all the members. in addition, instructors could play an important role to manage wikis and make sure the content is appropriate for learning purposes. Thank you for visiting and participating.
Best,
Tariq
"One of the problems with wikis is that educators have less control over the content. For example, students may post inaccurate information or not related to the learning topic. "
DeleteThat's an interesting thought, Tariq. If a student posted something on a wiki like this, and it was determined to be not just inaccurate or off-topic but worse (malicious?) I wonder if it would be considered the
1) student's responsibility for posting it (well, duh, but..)
2) the teacher or university's responsibility for not maintaining more control over the classroom; or
3) the software manufacturer's responsibility for not blocking "those kinds of messages" from being posted?
We're all adults here, hopefully we would accept responsibility for something we did. But other people, other situations..?
Tariq,
DeleteI think I would agree that the use of Wikis without passwords can end up having someone add inappropriate words or other content to the Wiki. I also think that it would be very frustrating if someone went in and removed much of the work that people contributed to. However, I do beleive I read in one article that there was a way to restore if someone had deleted content. I beleive it was (West & West) which would be helpful if one did not have a copy on back up somewhere with all their hard work.
As for the pro, about working on a Wiki with a group no matter their location, I think it does contribute to some good group work. However, I also feel that it could hinder if people are waiting till the last minute to work in their project until due dates.
Thanks for your thought!!
Hi Star,
DeleteFirst of all, thank you for visiting and participating. you mentioned an important point here " I also feel that it could hinder if people are waiting till the last minute to work in their project until due dates" I agree that using a wiki for group project requires a great management for tasks between group members to avoid waiting for the last minute to do the tasks.
Best,
Tariq Alshalan