Web+2.0

Wikis Wikis have pervaded the digital world to the point of no return. People are fascinated at being able to edit a webpage at anytime from anywhere. Interesting! Automatically, one can write and be read by a multitude: instant authorship. Wow! What is more astonishing is the fact that the editing can be done directly or through a simple “cut and paste” from any word processor. The ego trip intensifies when one feels that he/she is contributing to a worldwide repository of knowledge that is transparent to anyone with an internet connection. This “inclusiveness” characteristic makes wikis popular and to a great extent flattering. We can go on and on highlighting and bragging about the superlative character of wiki pages. That can be done easily by investigating some of the famous wikis already in existence: Wikipedia. Wikibooks, Wikiversity, Evowiki, oops, wikini, and so on. The question is: What’s in it for educators? For students? One must first understand that by simply adding a new tool to the already-filled to the brim tool chest is not going to change practice. We need to engage our students carefully in the process: they must own the changes, the contribution and whatever else a wiki experience entails. Our students must have a sense of ownership in order to listen to so many voices and process critically so much information. I have some reservation when it comes to use wikis in secondary education. I don’t believe that a 9th grader has developed enough judgmental skill in order to filter, reject or accept a comment from a skilled writer. In my experience, the “I read it on the internet” comment is one of corroboration, unfortunately. An “in-house” controlled and well-protected wiki is more on the order for a 9th grade class than a worldwide-web one. The source of what comes from the web can be just an interpretation or misinterpretation of someone else’s work. The evidence for such work has never been researched, approved or disproved. It suffices to have good mastery of the pen and present information in an attractive and beguiling way. A gullible mind (my 9th grade class) absorbs it like a dry blotter. It is not necessary to speculate on the nefarious consequences of such a scenario. It is too scary. Let’s see how one can consider wiki as a tool for enhancing learning! We can bring in our students as members of a team with a mission of building more knowledge over time. By doing so, they are actively participating in solving problems progressively. They are developing solutions to problems they have defined and/or redefined in order to tickle each other’s mind in a healthful fashion: seeking for more knowledge and consensus. Educators and students must develop together efficient rubrics for assessing students’ work. Besides, we must control the rate of input in order to dole out more time to students in order to reflect on new comments. From a student’s standpoint, there is a lot of work to do for school. With some control and good guidance, there is no doubt that students will appreciate the ability to share their work with others, the ability to view others’ work and be able to comment and above all, the simplicity and productivity of the experience as altogether. I have built a wiki that I plan to use with my three sections of 9th grade. So far, I have placed some documents for them to use for quiz preparation. Presently, in India, we have the Diwali break coming soon. After Diwali, I plan to lead them into altering the text of some articles I plan to post on the wiki. As I said before, the class community will develop guidelines and rubrics for work evaluation and assessment.