Supporting Deep Approaches to Learning through the use of Wikis and Weblogs

1
Supporting Deep Approaches to Learning through
the use of Wikis and Weblogs

• Norm Vaughan, PhD
• Teaching and Learning Centre, University of
  Calgary
• nvaughan_at_ucalgary.ca

2
Overview

• Wikis what, how and why
• Weblogs what, how and why
• Case study using wikis and weblogs to support
  deep approaches to learning

3
Wiki - Definition

• A wiki is a collection of Web pages that can be
  edited by anyone, at any time, from anywhere.
  The possibilities for using wikis as a platform
  for collaborative projects are limited only by
  ones imagination and time.
• (Cunningham, 1995)
• Examples of wiki
• software and hosting
• U of C Wiki
• Seedwiki
• WikiSpaces
• Wikiwig
• Writely
• Writeboard

4
Wiki - Demo

• Lilly Conference Wiki
• http//lillyconference2006.wikispaces.com/

5
Wiki Examples of Learning Activities

• Ideas for using wikis in your teaching practice?
• First idea

6
Wiki learning related activities

• A wiki can be used by
• Students to create online journals, lab books,
  research notebooks, ePortfolios, and even online
  textbooks for their own benefit, or for peer or
  instructor review.
• Faculty to communicate with their students and to
  collaborate on research and writing projects with
  their peers (e.g. textbooks, articles) through
  the collection of ideas, papers, timelines,
  documents, or to study results within a
  collective digital space.
• Departmental personnel, instructors and teaching
  assistants can use a wiki to organize and discuss
  common course assets such as syllabi, office
  hours and assessments without having an endless
  email chain or difficult to schedule face-to-face
  meetings.
• Conference organizers as a means of planning,
  coordinating and implementing events.

7
Weblog

• Weblogs are often referred to as a Web-based
  public diary with dated entries, usually by a
  single author, often accompanied by links to
  other blogs that the author of the site visits on
  a regular basis
• (Downes, 2004).
• Examples of weblog software and hosting
• U of C Weblogs
• Edublogs.org Blogger.com
• Bloglines.com

8
Weblog Create your Own

• Blogger.com
• http//www.blogger.com/start

9
Weblog Examples of Learning Activities

• Ideas for using weblogs in your teaching
  practice?
• First idea

10
Weblog learning activities

• A weblog can be used to
• Replace the standard course Web page. Teachers
  can post class times and guidelines, assignment
  notifications, suggested readings, and
  exercises.
• Annotate and link to Internet-based resources
  that relate to courses
• Organize and facilitate course based discussions
• Create summaries of course activities and
  readings

11
Your experience

• What does the term deep approaches to learning
  mean to you?
• Your ideas -

12
Surface versus deep approaches to learning

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What influences an approach?

• Type of question - Marton Saljo (1976)
• Exam performance - Svensson (1977)
• Context - Biggs (1987, 1998)
• Workload - Ramsden (1992)
• Approach to teaching - Trigwell, Prosser,
  Waterhouse (1999)
• Teaching and assessment - Entwistle(2000)

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Case study context

• Undergraduate education students enrolled in an
  Introduction to Computers in Education during the
  fall 2005 and winter 2006 semester at a Canadian
  community college (n46 participants)
• 15 week course - weekly 3 hour lecture and a 2
  hour tutorial.

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Profile of study participants (n46)

• Gender Age
• Female 89 (41) 15 to 20 35 (16)
• Male 11 ( 5) 21 to 25 52 (24)
• 26 to 30 4 ( 2) 31 plus
  9 ( 4)
• Previous experience with Home internet
  access
• computer-based technology Yes 100
  (46)
• in a higher education course No 0 ( 0)
• (e.g. Web site, e-mail, online
• discussion forums)?
• Yes 50 (23)
• No 50 (23)

16
Triad model
Erhmann (2002) http//www.marshall.edu/it/cit/flas
hlight/AuthorGuidelines.htmtriad
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Wiki-based learning activity

• Used by student groups to collaboratively
  summarize weekly online discussion forum
  sessions
• A series of online discussion forums were created
  within a learning management system, such as
  Blackboard, which related to the key
  modules/topics for the course.
• Groups of students (2 to 3) choose a module based
  on course readings, previous experience and/or
  interest in the topic.
• Each student group was responsible for moderating
  and summarizing their selected online discussion
  for a week long period.
• The groups used a wiki to make draft notes and a
  final summary of the online discussion based on
  guidelines co-created by the students and the
  course instructor.

18
Weblog-based learning activity

• Used for self-reflection and peer review of
  course assignments
• Each student created their own weblog
• After the completion of each course assignment
  the students posted responses to the following
  reflective questions on their weblogs
• What did you learn in the process of completing
  this assignment?
• How will you apply what you learned from this
  assignment to the next class assignment, other
  courses and/or your career?
• In terms of peer review, students attached drafts
  of specific course assignments to their blogs.
  Then other students in the class were randomly
  selected to review these documents and post
  responses to the authors weblog. Guiding
  questions for the peer review process included
• What did you learn from reviewing this document?
• What were the strengths (e.g. content, writing
  style, format and structure) of the document?
• What constructive advice and/or recommendations
  could you provide for improving the quality of
  this document?

19
Study methodology

• Web-based pre-study survey - administered at the
  beginning of the 1st lecture to gauge students
  initial perceptions about their approaches to
  learning
• Identical post-study survey - administered during
  the 12th week of the semester in order to
  determine how students perceptions about their
  approaches to learning had changed as a result of
  their course experience using wikis and weblogs
  
• Student focus group - conducted during the 13th
  week of the semester to further explore how
  students approaches to learning had been
  influenced by the course objectives, activities
  and use of wikis and weblogs

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Personal rating of computer skills

• 
  Pre-study Post-study
• n46 n40
• Novice 13 ( 6) 0 ( 0)
• (not really
• comfortable
• using technology)
• Intermediate 69 (33)
  53 (21)
• (comfortable
• using technology)
• Advanced 15
  ( 7) 47 (19)
• (have some expertise
• and enjoy using
• a computer)

21
Student orientation to studying survey results

• Surface Approach (Reproducing Orientation)

22
Student orientation to studying survey results

• Deep Approach - Meaning Orientation

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Wikis student identified advantages

• Facilitated virtual group work - increased
  communication, access and flexibility (17
  comments)
• I liked that we were able to work on this from
  home and that my partner was able to access and
  correct my work and i was able to do the same.
• Good organizational tool for synthesizing ideas
  and group reflection (10 comments)
• It helped to bring all of the information we
  gathered and the responses given all together. It
  was also good to get us to read through every
  comment and evaluate what people thought.
• Public nature of the summary - easy for everyone
  to view and make responses (9 comments)
• The availability of it for everyone else to see,
  not just like typing up and handing in notes,
  which would be kinda boring.
• Motivational (4 comments)
• its interesting and i like using this

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Wikis student identified advantages

• Ease and convenience of use (4 comments)
• It is a very convenient tool. It is almost
  perfect. After we post the summary, we can still
  edit it. I think it is a great way for sharing
  ideas.
• Ensured that all group members were involved in
  contributing to the summary (2 comments)
• We were able to create a summary that involved
  everybody's ideas and input.
• Created a space to allow for a diversity of
  opinions and perspectives to be heard and
  appreciated (1 comment)
• In creating the wiki we had to read over
  everybody's discussion posting and it gave us a
  broader sense of where everybody stood on the
  questions we asked.
• No advantages (1 comment)
• I really can not think of any advantages

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Wikis student identified disadvantages

• No disadvantages (17 comments)
• This was my first time using a wiki and I really
  couldnt find any disadvantages for it
• Group communication and motivation issues (7
  comments)
• It was a little stressful when you have completed
  all your work and you keep looking and your
  partner still has not put up there information.
• Technical issues (5 comments)
• I had troubles at first trying to use wiki...i
  posted some work and i didnt save it properly.
• Learning curve involved in using a wiki (2
  comments)
• At times it was kind of hard and difficult to
  use. Maybe because I haven't used it before.

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Wikis student identified disadvantages

• Would have been easier to use MS Word (3
  comments)
• Contributing to the wiki was just like writing
  everything out in a normal word document. There
  was nothing particularly interesting that made it
  stand out.
• Workload involved in using a wiki to create a
  summary (2 comments)
• having to read and summarize all the comments and
  postings.
• Restrictive (1 comment)
• It's a limited way to of doing the review, could
  be done in other forms

27
Weblogs student identified advantages

• Provides opportunities for reflection (15
  comments)
• The weblog allowed me to record my thoughts and
  goals. If I hadn't done that right after each
  assignment, then I would have lost what I thought
  about my work, and what I could have done better.
  
• Ability to receive feedback from peers and the
  teacher (15 comments)
• it was pretty cool, you get someones opinions
  and thoughts about the work you've done, could
  help u improve and strengthen things
• Easy and accessible to use (7 comments)
• I loved it. I think its a really easy thing to
  use and I wish I knew more about it before this
  class

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Weblogs student identified advantages

• Public nature of personal comments (4 comments)
• It was easy access for other students to view
  reflections of our experiences. It was also very
  simple to register, and get the hang of it. You
  also feel like your on a more personal basis with
  the other students in the class, because you get
  a chance to see into their minds!
• Digital record and archive of personal
  reflections (2 comments)
• I can refer to my weblog as often as I need to
  and the information will always be there. (Don't
  have to worry about losing paper copies)
• Provides opportunity for writing practice and
  self-improvement (1 comment)
• It made me think about how to improve on myself
  and allowed me to use my writing skills to
  express myself in an organized, thoughtful
  manner.

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Weblogs student identified disadvantages

• No disadvantages (14 comments)
• I didnt really find anything wrong or a
  disadvantage of using the weblog. I really liked
  it, and felt that it was a useful tool.
• Public nature of comments (7 comments)
• they were public so it was hard to make
  complaints and constructive criticisms
• Time involved in keeping the Weblog updated (4
  comments)
• You have to find the time to update the weblog to
  avoid it becoming outdated.
• Potential to post and receive negative comments
  (2 comments)
• A disadvantage could be that if something
  negative or personal was said everyone was able
  to see....however that wasnt the case so....

30
Weblogs student identified disadvantages

• Orientation issues (2 comments)
• I found it a bit confusing when I first started
  using the weblog.  But once I started it was way
  easier.
• Computer dependant activity (2 comments)
• Constantly need access to a computer to access
  assignments, comments, etc.
• Impersonal and boring (2 comments)
• It is fairly boring, have to use a set style.
• Technical issues (2 comments)
• doesnt let us get our own background and so have
  to stick with limited choices

31
Case study limitations

• Small number of participants
• Two undergraduate education classes total of
  only 46 students
• Nature of the education course
• Introduction to Computers in Education

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Four habits of mind (St. Olaf College)

• Integrative thinking The ability and habit to
  recognize relationships among ideas and
  experiences that are not routinely thought of as
  related.
• Reflective thinking The ability and habit of
  looking back at previous learning and setting
  those experiences in a new context created by
  subsequent learning.
• Thinking in community The ability and habit of
  seeking connections between your learning and
  learning of others who have shared interests.
• Thinking in context The ability and habit of
  seeking connections between what you learned in
  college and relating those connections to
  subjects, debate, and discussion in the wider
  world

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Five Dimensions of Higher Learning
Angelo Cross (1993)
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Questions, Comments, Discussion
PowerPoint Slides and Resources Available
at http//www.ucalgary.ca/nvaughan/norm/presenta
tions.htm
35
Resources

• Angelo, T.A. K. P. Cross, P.K. (1993).
  Classroom Assessment Techniques. 2nd ed. San
  Francisco Jossey-Bass.
• Downes, S. (2004). Educational Blogging. EDUCAUSE
  Review, 39 (5), 1426.
• Lamb, B. (2004). Wide Open Spaces Wikis, Ready
  or Not. EDUCAUSE Review, 39 (5), 3648.
• Moon, J. (2004). A Handbook of Reflective and
  Experiential Learning, London Routledge Falmer.
• Ramsden, P. (2003). Learning to Teach in Higher
  Education. 2nd ed. London Routledge Falmer.