Using Wikis for Teaching

Martin A Walker SUNY Potsdam

Introduction Wikis as resources Using a wiki as a platform for collaborative

learning Conclusion

Overview

What is a wiki?

“A collaborative website which can be directly edited by anyone with access to it.”

(Wiktionary, March 20, 2007)

From the Hawaiian word “wiki wiki” meaning “quick.”

Mediawiki – Used for Wikipedia. Install it on a

local server. Harder to use, but potentially very powerful

PBwiki – Can create your own free wiki, pay

for more features Simple but less sophisticated

Wikispaces Also simple but more basic Operated by Google

Wiki “flavors”

A PBworks class wiki

Basic editing tools: Typographical, internal & external links, media, tables.

Page tab tools: Attached discussion, page history.

User tools: Watchlist, contributions, user talk. Advanced tools: Templates & transclusion, bots,

extensions, Javascript tools.

Wiki Tools

WIKIS AS RESOURCES

Wikipedia, and dBpedia,, and LearnChemistry wiki

The biggest collection of human knowledge ever created

Although it has a radically different method for content creation, studies show that it is as good, or better than, traditional encyclopedias

We can’t avoid it – but why should we want to! Let’s teach our students to use it properly!

Wikipedia

WikiTrust

Downloadable as an extension to Firefox, this adds a tab above the article:

Wikipedia as a resource

Wikipedia can provide a valuable service to students: Context A portal to the literature Quick definitions, facts Source of images

Quality is now much better, and can be roughly checked – but Wikipedia is still not 100% reliable

GLAM – Many museums (e.g., Smithsonian) now have a “Wikipedian in residence” uploading materials

Expect to see more books, flash drives etc with Wikipedia content

Wikimedia Commons – pictures, videos dBpedia – A searchable database that allows

complex queries: “Find all baseball players born in NY State between 1918 and 1925.”

Related resources

An example of a more specialized site – but other wikis exist for many other subjects

Student-friendly information on over 2000 chemical substances

Around 120 experiments aimed at UK high schools

A selection of quizzes at many levels Tutorials and guides on specific topics

RSC LearnChemistry

Global site search for RSC content

LearnChemistry wiki

Quizzes

Write your own quiz:

Open organic chem questions

Lab pages- overviews

Lab pages – teacher notes

Lab pages – student procedure

Substance pages – built from the ChemSpider database

Structure searching…..

takes us here

Wikis can do much more than text: Pictures, video links, Powerpoints, PDFs, etc Mashups containing content from other sites Quizzes – even open-ended quizzes, with the right

extensions! Forms to make it easier to write new content “Bots” allow automation of standard edits Collaborative projects (in next section)

Lessons from LearnChemistry wiki

USING A WIKI AS A PLATFORM FOR COLLABORATIVE LEARNING

An online course taught on a MediaWiki platform set up on the college server.

All course materials embedded in the wiki (e.g., schedules, Powerpoint lessons) or linked from it (e.g., assigned readings, additional resources). Blackboard was used only for grades & a final exam

Regular synchronous discussions held using an IM-style chat

Students participate in a role-play where they share Powerpoints in real time

Students also share their term papers via the wiki

An in-house wiki for “The Sustainable World”

Main course page

Course schedule

Discussions held in EtherPad

Organic chemistry students were given a three-week research project to make anisyl alcohol from anisaldehyde: Research the literature as a group, share results in real

time and choose a “best method” Run the chosen method in lab Isolate product and analyze results

Results were recorded in the LearnChemistry wiki, as well as in the course Moodle site

The wiki was particularly useful for sharing data during the literature research session

RSC LearnChemistry projects

Overview page

Literature search results uploaded by student “scribes”

Poster projects shared via the Web

Advanced organic chemistry students write up a synthesis both as a poster and as a web page.

Students in different lab sessions carry out a series of related experiments, then results are uploaded by a TA

This allows students to contribute to a bigger overall goal. When they “see the big picture”, this adds meaning to their results

Data are open and available for use by scientists Students write up a full-length lab report which

includes a discussion of the entire class’s data We hope that other colleges may be willing to

share their results on the same wiki

Collaborative experiments

Wiki table of recrystallization data

Students can learn lessons from their mistakes, and pass that information on to successor students.

“Many students do not see traditional lab reports as communications of their findings but rather as an assignment. Implementation of a wiki communication medium between peers has allowed students to see the value of sharing their results”

UOIW: Lab students sharing lessons learned

John Stankus, University of the Incarnate Word, TX. © UOIW

Wikipedia projects SUNY Potsdam Sedimentary Geology

Students prepare drafts on a college wiki then transfer them to Wikipedia

Help is available for your campus!

Benefits of wiki-based projects Students can:

Learn about collaboration, and how to behave appropriately in a group project

Learn how to follow rules, which can be very strict in the case of Wikipedia

Learn about the academic process Information literacy Peer review It’s hard work! Contribute to the world’s academic resources

See their work published on the Web for all to see. With Wikipedia the reach is amazing -(70,000 hits/year for the Clastic rock article)

Wikis provide some valuable educational resources on the internet, especially for user-generated content

Wikis can also provide a unique platform for coursework, especially useful for: Group collaboration, especially on writing Sharing information rapidly within a group, or even

perhaps between groups Allowing students to share their work with the

world

Conclusion

Acknowledgements

Michael C. Rygel (Geology, SUNY Potsdam) Wikipedia projects in the classroom

Thanks to my coworkers at RSC: Lorna Thomson, Duncan McMillan, RSC Education Dr. Aileen Day, RSC ChemSpider Dr. Antony Williams, RSC ChemSpider

Also thanks to Dr. Richard Kidd, RSC Publications Dr. James Iley, RSC Education Many Wikipedians including Users Beetstra, Physchim62,

Smokefoot Dr. Luca de Alfaro and the WikiTrust team

Copyright information

All of my own content in this presentation is released under a Creative Commons BY-SA-3.0 license

Copyright information for images is usually attributed on the slide itself

Content from Wikipedia and RSC LearnChemistry is reused via a Creative Commons BY-SA-3.0 license. For authors, please visit the original page and select the “history” tab.

Other pictures not attributed should only be my own personal pictures, also CC-BY-SA3.