Live to learn.: Wikispaces for Student and Teacher Spaces

Wednesday, 27 June 2012

Wikispaces for Student and Teacher Spaces

A wiki. What is it? There is no single definition or description of what a wiki is, but it comes from the Hawaiian phrase 'wiki wiki' which means to hurry. Franklin and Van Harmelen (2007, p.5) define a wiki as 'a system that allows one or more people to build up a corpus of knowledge in a set of interlinked web pages, using a process of creating and editing pages' (p.5). The use of the most well-known wiki, Wikipedia, within education can be a contentious issue due to the ability for anyone to edit the pages. However this 'issue' (if you view it as such) can be overcome as there are various wiki websites available that allow for restrictions on who can access, view, or contribute to the wiki. Wikispaces is one example of such a wiki being used in education.

Wikispaces is a free (for educational purposes) wiki host that can provide a private or public (whatever you want!) space on the internet for use in the classroom or indeed with other teachers to share and discuss practice. From my own experience of wikispaces, there are pros and cons to using it. I have outlined some of these below. Overall, I find wikispaces very useful in that the layout is simple and it is relatively straightforward to figure out. If you have never used a wiki before, but might be interested, I would certainly recommend trying it out.

Pros

You can name the wikispace whatever you want (as long as the url is not already in use) and so it can be named something that is unique to the group you are setting up.
Content is easy to organise. Any pages that are created can be organised under common folder tags, e.g., pages related to the topic of Light can all be given the tag 'Light' and will appear in that folder. You can add hyperlinks to other pages within the wikispace or links to pages elsewhere on the internet. This is particularly useful when the aim is to keep the focus on the text without simply collecting a list of websites. Many other things can be embedded on the pages such as images, video clips, and links to uploaded files, etc.
There are various colour schemes and different layouts for the wikispace, so the wikispace can be given a look and feel that reflects its content.
Changes are tracked so you can see who has made changes, when, and where. Particular pages of interest can be followed so that you receive e-mail notifications if changes are made to these pages. You can also view how many people have visited the webpages to get an idea of peoples' use of the wiki.

Cons

The wikispace pages do not support landscape view. Excel Sheets or Google docs can be embedded within a wiki but, it would be quite useful if a wiki page did not have to align with a traditional view of a page in a textbook. Albion (2008) notes that we tend to recreate older social forms of organisation in new technologies and not supporting landscape pages on wikispaces is such an example.
When downloading PDFs of pages, the text does not appear on some PDFs or appears too small. This issue with text can be particularly prevalent on pages that have tables on them. Not being able to download material from the wiki diminishes the value of the wiki.

References
-Albion, P. R. (2008). Web 2.0 in Teacher Education: Two Imperatives for Action. Computers in the Schools, 25(3-4), 181-198.
-Franklin, T., & Van Harmelen, M. (2007). Web 2.0 for content for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education. Bristol: JISC. Retrieved from: http://ie-repository.jisc.ac.uk/148/1/web2-content-learning-and-teaching.pdf.

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Publications

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Donnelly, D.F., & Hume, A. (2015). Using collaborative technology to enhance pre-service teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge in science. Research in Science and Technological Education, 33(1), 61-87. doi:10.1080/02635143.2014.977782 [Link]

Donnelly, D. F., Linn, M. C., & Ludvigsen, S. (2014). Impacts and characteristics of computer-based science inquiry learning environments for precollege students. Review of Educational Research, 84(4), 572–608. doi:10.3102/0034654314546954 [Link]

Donnelly, D. F., McGarr, O., & O’Reilly, J. (2014). “Just be quiet and listen to exactly what he’s saying”: Conceptualising power relations in inquiry oriented classrooms. International Journal of Science Education, 36(12), 2029–2054. doi:10.1080/09500693.2014.889867 [Link]

Donnelly, D. F., & Boniface, S. (2013). Consuming and creating: Early-adopting science teachers’ perceptions and use of a wiki to support professional development. Computers & Education, 68(1), 9-20. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2013.04.023 [Link]

Donnelly, D., O’Reilly, J., & McGarr, O. (2013). Enhancing the student experiment experience: Visible scientific inquiry through a virtual chemistry laboratory. Research in Science Education, 43(4), 1571–1592. doi:10.1007/s11165-012-9322-1 [Link]

Donnelly, D., McGarr, O. and O'Reilly, J. (2011). A Framework for Teachers' Integration of ICT Into Their Classroom Practice. Computers & Education, 57(2), 1469-1483. doi: 10.1016/j.compedu [Link]

Donnelly, D., O'Reilly, J. and McGarr, O. (2011). Building blocks for PCK: A conceptual framework to support Shulman’s original construct. Proceedings of European Science Education Research Association (ESERA), Lyon, France, September 5-9. [Link]

Donnelly, D., McGarr, O. and O’Reilly, J. (2011). The promotion of scientific inquiry in Irish post-primary schools through the use of a virtual chemistry laboratory: Implications for teacher education. Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2011 (pp. 3638-3645), Chesapeake, VA: AACE. [Link]

Donnelly, D., O'Reilly, J. and McGarr, O. (2010). A Practical Approach to the Promotion of Inquiry in Chemistry in Irish Post-Primary Schools: a Virtual Chemistry Laboratory. Proceedings of London International Conference on Education (LICE), London, 6-8 September. [Link]

Presentations

Vitale, J.M., Libby, G.F., Donnelly, D.F., McBride, E., & Linn, M.C. (2015). Comparing teacher use of logistic and conceptual indicators to guide online science inquiry. Paper to be presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), Chicago, IL, April 16-20.

Gobert, J.D., Sao Pedro, M.A., Linn, M.C., Donnelly, D.F., Buckley, B., & Ketelhut, D.J. (2015). Next generation learning and assessment environment for science inquiry practices. American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting, San Jose, CA. February 12-16.

Linn, M., Gerard, L., Donnelly, D., Krajcik, J., & Lester, J. (2014). Navigating to NGSS success: Identifying a research agenda, DR K-12 PI Meeting, Washington DC, August 5-6.

Donnelly, D.F., & Hume, A. (2013) 'Pre-service teachers' perceptions of a wiki to support Content Representation (CoRe) design' in Australasian Science Education Research Association (ASERA), Wellington, New Zealand, July 2-5.

Donnelly, D., Boniface, S. and Hume, A. (2012) 'Supporting New Zealand Teacher Professional Development Through CoRes and PaP-eRs On A Wiki' in International Conference on Chemistry Education (ICCE), Rome, Italy, July 15-20.

Donnelly, D., O’Reilly, J. and McGarr, O. (2011) 'The Promotion of Scientific Inquiry in Teachers’ Practice through ICT: Affordances of a Virtual Chemistry Laboratory' in World Conference on Educational Technology Researches (WCETR), Nicosia, Cyprus, July 6-10.

Donnelly, D., O’Reilly, J. and McGarr, O. (2011) 'Facilitating scientific enquiry in Irish post-primary schools through the use of a virtual chemistry laboratory' in FACiLiTATE conference, Dublin, May 26-27.

Donnelly, D., O'Reilly, J. and McGarr, O. (2009) 'A Virtual Chemistry Laboratory for Irish Post-Primary Schools' in Educational Studies Association of Ireland (ESAI) Conference, Kilkenny, April 23-24.