Wiki becomes textbook in Boston College classroom

Wiki becomes textbook in Boston College classroom

This is an article at ComputerWorld.com. From the article:

"In one Boston College professor's classroom, however, wikis have become a primary learning tool, replacing textbooks and allowing improved collaboration among students. The wiki is even used to let students submit possible questions for examinations, many of which actually appear on tests."

Anyone who attends the annual Educause.edu conferences on a regular basis knows that this is not a first. However, it is an interesting article and shows how wikis can be used to replace textbooks.

Using Social Software in Online and Hybrid Classes

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This is the Audio and Powerpoint of the presentation that I gave today about my experience using social software (blogs, wikis, podcasts, and website creation) in an online class this last semester.

The audio is located on my Geography for Travelers podcast. The Powerpoint slides are hosted for viewing and downloading at: http://www.slideshare.net/alew/

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Note that this version of the Powerpoint presentation is slightly different from the audio file. There are a couple of slides at the start and at the end that were not in the presentation when the audio was recorded, and there is one slide at the end that I mention (very briefly) that is not in the slidecast. --- Long story....

Web 2.0 Ideas for Educators - eBook

TeachingHacks.com provides a free and very interesting eBook titled:

"Web 2.0 Ideas for Educators: A Guide to RSS and More"
by Quentin d'souza

Download the PDF book here

and go to the blog page that supports the book here

The guide is designed for K-12 educators, but with the current state of Web 2.0 in Higher Education (very limited in my view), I do not think there is really that much difference.

Here are two chapter from the Table of Contents:


IDEAS TO GET YOU STARTED

• SOCIAL BOOKMARKING AND RSS
• WHAT IS SOCIAL BOOKMARKING?
• HOW IT WORKS?
• BLOGGING AND RSS
• WHAT IS A BLOG?
• COMMENTS IN BLOGS
• WIKIS AND RSS
• WHAT IS A WIKI?
• SHARING RSS FEEDS
• PHOTO SHARING AND RSS
• WHAT IS PHOTO SHARING?
• HOW IT WORKS

MORE IDEAS

• SHARING LEARNING OBJECT’S
• K-12 Learning Objects Shared Through RSS
• CLASS AND SCHOOL INFORMATION
• TRACK DISCUSSIONS

FlatPlanet Wiki - International Collaborative Wiki Example

The FlatPlanet Wiki (on Wikispaces.com) is a collaboration between a secondary class in Canada and one in the UK. The students worked together to create a series or projects that deal with Environmental Issues.

The site includes a useful set of ground rule that would be helpful to anyone wanting to setup a similar wiki project.

Nice job, kids!

BTW - I used Wikispaces, myself, this past semester as part of a class on Sustainable Tourism. I think Wikispaces is the best out there for class use -- especially from a teacher's perspective.

"Making Wikipedia Better" - Class Assignment

This comes from The Wired Campus blog and email newsletter (Chronicle of Higher Education, 8 March 07), where you can also follow the discussion.

"Nicola Pratt, a lecturer in international relations at the University of East Anglia, in England, tells The Guardian that she was once one of those "disgruntled" academics who berate students for using Wikipedia in their essays. But then Ms. Pratt had an epiphany: Instead of complaining to her students, why not recruit them to make Wikipedia better? The lecturer is now asking her graduate students to edit eight Wikipedia articles -- on contentious topics related to the politics of the Middle East -- and to make them more balanced. Ms. Pratt has also told students they must create a new article of their own. One hopes students' grades won 't be dependent on articles making it intact through Wikipedia's rough-and-tumble editing process. "

Personally, I think think this is a great idea, especially for a small seminar-like class of seniors or graduate students where not only can content be expanded, but sticky issues of knowledge and epistomology and the role of science and social science in society can be explored.

WikiMatrix - Wiki Comparison Tool

WikiMatrix.org is a website that allows you to compare different wiki tools available on the web. It is amazing how many wikis are out there -- currently 77 on the WikiMatrix site. Click on "Choice Wizard" to get started. Comparisons cover an incredible amount of items, including cost/fee options, storage and bandwidth quotas, intended audience, security and spam controls, editing and history features, formatting, media, and statistics. The wikis with the floppy disk icon next to them require server installation, while those with a hand icon are web-based. There is also a Discussion Forum on the topic of wikis.

I have used Wikis to some degree in my classes, and plan to do more. And I have had a few previous entries on this blog related to wikis that I have encountered:

• Collaborative Writing with Writeboard & JotSpot
• Designing Learning Spaces (a Wiki-based class)
• Schtuff.com
• Writely.com

Other interesting links that can be found at the very top of the WikiMatrix page are:

PodcatcherMatrix.org - Did you know that there are 20 different Podcatchers out there! (A podcatcher is a program for subscribing to and downloading podcasts -- iTunes added a podcatcher capability in summer 2005.) The WikiMatrix people also have PodcastMatrix.org -- which looks just like WikiMatrix, but compares podcatchers.

ForumMatrix.org - Compares 20 different Bulletin Board Systems to run your own discussion forums.

Learning activities for educational social software

Learning activities for educational social software

This list of activities is designed specifically for the restricted access Me2U system (a version of the open source social software at elgg.org) at Athabasca University. However, the activities can be used on any social software site, including blog sites (MySpace, etc.), discussion forums, and wikis; and especially the Collaborative Learning Tools that bring many of those together in single environments, and which I previously blogged about. Web-based teaching environments, such as Blackboard and WebCT are also suited to these activities.

The activities are all presented in a very brief manner, which is good because they are not overwhelming -- especially since there are so many activities listed. Instead, these are very approachable and allows an instructor to modify any particular approach to meet their class situation. What is striking is how simple many of the activities are, and how familiar they are for anyone who has been involved in student-centered learning, whether online or in the classroom.

Here is an example of one of the activities:

Activity Name: Jigsaws
Number of participants: two or more
Activities:

• The instructor divides an assignment or topic into equal parts. Each participant is responsible for learning or completing their part.
• Each student becomes an expert on their topic and uses their blog on the ME2U web site to teach their section. Other students are encouraged to ask questions and post comments.

Assessment: learners are assessed based on the quality of their presentation of topic and follow-up discussion.
Support technologies: blog, learners can use the “Your Files" area of Me2U to upload files (graphics, text files, etc.) that can be used to enhance instruction.
Suggested time to complete: varies based on course topic


In sum, this website is a useful starting point for anyone interested in using social software in education.