Wiki+as+a+Teaching+Tool


 * SUMMARY OF THE ARTICLE** **"WIKI AS A TEACHING TOOLL?" **

//Thaís El Malih //

According to the article "Wiki as a Teaching Tool" by Kevin R. Parker and Joseph T. Chao "a wiki is a web communication and collaboration tool that can be used to engage students in learning with others within a collaborative environment"(p.57). Wikis play an important role when it comes to involving students in their own construction of knowledge. Wiki is also a social software in which everyone can participate and that makes "possible powerful information sharing and straightforward collaboration" (Boulos et al., 2006). Although the wiki tool was introduced more than ten years ago, its use is relatively new in higher education. Third level education has only recently begun to explore the potential educational value of Wikis as "a means to promote deeper learning and integration of learning experiences from both inside the classroom and out"(p.60).

There are several uses for Wiki, such as the development of research projects and publishing course resources, such as handouts.

Wikis are often compared to blogs.They both appeared about a decade ago and they both offer an easy and fast publishing tool for spreading and sharing information as well as getting feedback. Despite the similarities, they are not the same thing. Wikis are intended for users to create knowledge repositories, while blogs are intended for writing personal diaries.

Spreading the use of Wikis for educational purposes will allow educators "to better prepare students to make innovative uses of collaborative software tools" (p.67).


 * Wiki as a Teaching Tool**

//**Gabriel Santos**//

Even though the wiki was introduced more than ten years ago, its use is relatively new. Higher education has only recently begun to explore the potential educational value of wikis as a means to promote deeper learning and integration of learning experiences from both inside the classroom. Duffy and Bruns (2006) list several possible educational uses of wikis: • Students can use a wiki to develop research projects, with the wiki serving as ongoing documentation of their work. • Students can add summaries of their thoughts from the prescribed readings, building a collaborative annotated bibliography on a wiki. • A wiki can be used for publishing course resources like syllabi and handouts, and students can edit and comment on these directly for all to see. • Teachers can use wikis as a knowledge base, enabling them to share reflections and thoughts regarding teaching practices, and allowing for versioning and documentation. • Wikis can be used to map concepts. They are useful for brainstorming, and editing a given wiki topic can produce a linked network of resources. • A wiki can be used as a presentation tool in place of conventional software, and students are able to directly comment on and revise the presentation content. Those possibilities makes the students comfortable with digital tools in their learn and also prepares them to make innovative use of collaborative software tools. Wiki is beginning to fill some gaps that were missing when we talk about digital tools to share work.


 * Wiki as a Teaching Tool**


 * //Bruna Luiza//**

The article “Wiki as a Teaching Tool” by Kevin R. Parker and Joseph T. Chao explains the different uses of wikis and how this tool can be used to engage students in learning in a collaborative way.

First of all, the authors conceptualize what are a Web2.0 and a Wiki. A Wiki is a website in which the content can be edited by the visitors and used to collaborative learning. The Web2.0 is a group of technologies that makes possible the share of information using the internet. Both Web2.0 and Wiki are powerful sources which help students during their construction of knowledge and can fit paradigms named by the authors as “Approaches to Learning”,

They consist of theories and studies conducted by a variety of researchers which conclude that they are important aspects for learning. The “Cooperative / Collaborative Paradigm” says that teams can achieve better results than individually and wikis can facilitate the sharing and distributing of knowledge. The “Constructivist Paradigm” describes that learning should be cooperative and collaborative. Thus, the connection between wiki and the paradigms can be clearly seen.

Despite this relation, wikis are a very recent tool used in Higher Education introduced ten years ago. Today new usages of Wikis are suggested by many researchers, who try to disseminate the benefits brought by this technology when properly used.

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