Running Head: AN EXPLORATION OF WIKI USE

An Exploration of Wiki Use in the Secondary Language Arts Classroom Ashley Bayles University of British Columbia 40912024 ETEC 500 65D Dr. Janet McCracken Wednesday, March 14, 2012

AN EXPLORATION OF WIKI USE

INTRODUCTION As an English teacher at the secondary level, I am interested in knowing if the use of a wiki or other collaborative online tool will help to improve my students writing. The research I have found is mostly about using blogs in elementary schools and wikis at the university level, which shows the secondary level is an area which needs more research. I will explore what evidence has been found to date and see what direction this future research should take. I have two main questions I am looking to answer: Does online collaboration help students improve their writing, and does the use of online collaborative tools have any benefit? To answer these questions I have explored three articles, each of which I will look at individually, and then I will synthesis their findings to answer my research questions. SUMMARIES AND CRITIQUES Critique of Wichadee (2010) Wichadees research takes place in a single first year English course in at Bangkok University. The 35 students formed groups of four or five and worked together to design a wikispace that they used to write five pieces of summary written work. The study data consisted of pre and post testing, a questionnaire, and a refection. Wichadee claims that the mean score of student summaries improved and students had positive attitudes toward this learning. While the both the tests and the questionnaire were verified for content validity and piloted, this article has drawbacks due to the sampling method used and the lack of any conclusion about the data found.

AN EXPLORATION OF WIKI USE

The cluster sampling used in this test is the most logical option for this type of research, but does not guarantee the sample is representative. Also, although the author states the conclusion in the introduction, the article itself does not contain a conclusion. The research results are given and summarized, but no formal conclusion is made, nor is there any suggestion of what areas further research needs to explore. As a result of not providing enough information about the data collected or summarizing the findings, this research is not that useful, except for its literature review portion and the information on student summary writing improvements. Critique of Elola and Oskoz (2010) Elola and Oskozs research explores how students improve their language skills in a second language through online collaborative work and to what extent. They note that by engaging in a dialogue that is necessary in collaboration, students are more aware of gaps in their language production. Students were given un-graded assignments in which they became familiar with the PBWiki software before the study began and then students were paired based on proficiency, although it is unclear if that is language proficiency or technology proficiency. Although this study is using sample clustering and the results are not statistically significant to determine the results of using a wiki in their work, the conclusions about possible benefits are still valid in terms of collaboration. The authors point out these limitations in the conclusion, so it is still an unbiased and useful piece of research even though the results are inconclusive. This only supports the fact that much more research is needed.

AN EXPLORATION OF WIKI USE

Critique of Lending (2010) This article seeks to explore the benefits of students using an online Wiki to collaborate on a study guide for the final exam of a First Year required course in Management Information Systems. The assignment has been given to groups of 10 to 70 students and the researchers found that the size of the group needs to relate to the number of outcomes so each student is able to contribute the necessary amount so that having approximate three times the number of outcomes as there are students worked best. Lending found average grades on the final exam improved by five percent with the introduction of this assignment. This research was quite thorough, but the data collected only used one class of 28 students, and the results are unclear as the changes were made from the previous results. The article states that the course has many sections and many different professors, so a study of randomly selected students from each class would have proved more representative. Also, the results show that average grades improved on the final exam after this assignment was introduced, but the exam was given early in exam week when normally it is toward the end, and the textbook was changed from previous years. The author points out these inconsistencies, so I feel that she is unbiased in her conclusions and this article is a valuable starting point for further research in the area. The assignment and grading techniques used (which are both included as appendices) in this research provide inspiration for how I could use similar collaborative techniques in my own classroom.

AN EXPLORATION OF WIKI USE

SYNTEHSIS OF RESULTS Does Online Collaboration Help Students Improve Their Writing? As Elola and Oskoz (2010) point out, collaboration using online tools make[s] learners become active participants in the process whereby, though collaboration and multiple drafts, they acquire the necessary linguistic and writing conventions of the target language (p. 64). They also state that the use of wikis allow students to focus on editing, grammatical details and vocabulary. Through observing wiki drafts they noticed that students played around with structure and organization, switching paragraphs and sentences around and students self-reported that the wiki helped them improve the content and the structure of their essays (Elola and Oskoz, 20120, p. 63). The students in Lendings study also improved upon each others work with the end result being more detailed and providing specific examples. Students create a structural foundation from the very start of the collaboration process to provide a foundation for their work. The very act of collaboration lends itself to helping organize writing, and online collaboration is one form it can take. From these articles it appears collaboration is better for content and organization than improvement of grammar or spelling. Does the Use of Online Collaboration Tools Have Any Benefit? Online tools have an automatic benefit in the fact that they encourage students to engage with each other and course material outside of the classroom. It forces students to use their own time management because as Wichadee (2010) reports, students realized that late posting could affect other members and work could not be done in time and at the

AN EXPLORATION OF WIKI USE

same time computers problems were the cause of late postings for some students (Research Results, para. 2). It is also an effective study tool if students use it to collaboratively study and effective use of a wiki helps move the responsibility for learning from the professor to the student (Lending, 2012, p.12). The best online collaboration tools and benefits over offline collaboration need to be further examined. CONCLUSION While the research seems to support the use of wikis as a collaborative tool in the classroom, more research needs to be done on the benefits of wikis over traditional collaboration, as well as the downfalls of this technology. Additionally, more of this research needs to take place in the secondary school context to ensure students have the skills they need as they go on to university or join the workforce. It is unclear for which specific writing skills online collaboration is best suited, but it is clear that there are some benefits over offline collaboration and in a technological world we must prepare our students for any future career path they may choose.

AN EXPLORATION OF WIKI USE

References
Wichadee, S. (2010). Using wikis to develop summary writing abilities of students in an EFL class. Journal of College Teaching and Learning, 7 (12), 5-10. Web. Elola, Idoia, and Ana Oskoz. "Collaborative Writing: Fostering Foreign Language and Writing Conventions Development." Language Learning & Technology 14.3 (2010): 51-71. Web. Lending, D. (2010). Using a wiki to collaborate on a study guide. Journal of Information Systems Education, 21(1), 5-13. Web.