Use of wikis

Peter Taylor, Educational technology Conference, May 13, 2010
this can be edited by anyone, but you can also send comments to me

Why use a technological tool (such as a wiki)?

pedagogical guidelines (from 2001)

• 1. To extend thinking of students
  • a. Use computers first and foremost to teach or learn things that are difficult to teach or learn with pedagogical approaches that are not based on computers.
  • b. Make sure that learning/knowledge-construction is happening, especially when asking students to use the internet.
  • c. Model computer use on best practices to ensure learning without computers.
• 2. To facilitate group interaction, e.g., by freeing teacher from the bookkeeping part of class activities
• 3. To enhance communication of knowledge
• 4. To organize a personal workstation or "virtual office"

guidelines for service & institutional development (from 2005)

• planning
• community-building
• probing & reflection towards coherent principles
• transparency and inclusiveness of consultation
• documenting process, product, and evaluations for institutional learning
• organization, including efficient use of computer technology, to support all of the above

Also

• modeling/experimenting with tools that colleagues & students can also adopt/adapt
• developing & sharing material (open source)
• interacting beyond normal boundaries

+

• collaborative generation of knowledge

A range of uses, each followed by the themes/principles (from above) that the use exemplifies

Framework of exchanges

• beyond normal boundaries; learning/knowledge-construction not very successful

departmental memory and information sharing

• transparency; institutional learning

towards community guidelines

• probing & reflection towards coherent principles

Office Hour sign up

• freeing classtime from bookkeeping; virtual office; organization

fieldbook

• developing & sharing material

program newsletters

• community-building; efficiency

recording the process and products of workshops, seminars, and courses (4-day workshop, monthly CCT events)

• documenting process, product, and evaluations; institutional learning; open source; planning; community-building

community-building & update

• community-building; documenting process, product, and evaluations; modeling/experimenting with tools

to do list

• virtual office; efficiency

student reflective practice portfolios; guided tour of teaching

• documenting process, product, and evaluations/reflection; modeling/experimenting with tools

assembling materials for a fieldbook on teaching

• developing & sharing material

annotated bibliography entries by students

• open source

teaching problem-based learning

• computer use on best practices

-including involvement of panels from a distance

• interacting beyond normal boundaries; difficult to do without computers

assignment dropboxes and course portfolios

• efficiency; freeing classtime from bookkeeping

collaborative input to a manuscript or proposal

• collaborative generation of knowledge