Learning Course Content by Creating a Wiki

Springer. 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013. Tel: 800-777-4643; Tel: 212-460-1500; Fax: 212-348-4505; e-mail: [email protected]; Web site: http://www.springerlink.com

Y

7

Methods Courses; Student Attitudes; Textbooks; Language Arts; Computer Software; Course Content; Perception; Web Sites; Editing; Collaborative Writing; Interviews; Reflection; Teacher Education Programs; Preservice Teachers; Cooperation

8756-3894

In this article, students' perceptions of the benefits and the challenges of creating a wiki for a language arts methods class are explored through their online reflections and interview transcripts. The students' own words describe their experiences about learning course content while collaborating to create a course wiki. Reflecting on the students' words fosters an understanding of their perceptions and experiences. In online reflections and interviews, language arts methods students repeatedly stated that creating the class wiki forced them to read course materials, to read other textbooks and resources, and to read the wiki pages themselves. Some students acknowledged that contributing to the wiki led to in-depth processing of the course content and that contributing to the wiki benefited them in other classes. However, contributing to the wiki had its challenges and students were quick to comment on them. Even though the wiki software was easy to use, students struggled to figure out how to enable cookies on their computer, to refresh the wiki page after they made edits, and to understand the collaborative nature of the wiki. Frustrations with the limited formatting options in the wiki software were also noted. As the semester progressed and students became familiar with the wiki software, they reported fewer problems and frustrations.

ERIC

19

2009

EJ847074