Wikis, Wikipedia, Wikibooks, and Collaborative Writing

Along with Podcast and Blog applications, Wikis are considered a prominent Web 2.0 technology. From its inception in 1995 by Ward Cunningham, wikis technologies have been intended to facilitate a quick and easy development of a web document. Before wiki technologies were available, web users were only able to read content from web pages but did not have the capability to author pages collaboratively, unless they owned their personal web site. Wikis provided the capability for any web user to create and update web pages.

The first web application to take full advantage of wiki features was Wikipedia, which started in 2001. Wikipedia is thus the most well known wiki application (Konieczny, 2007). Contrary to other web-based encyclopedias, the success of Wikipedia is that anyone can become a contributor, speeding up in this way the process to add new entries to the encyclopedia in practically any language. The inherent features of wikis facilitate collaborative writing so multiple users can be working/editing a Wikipedia entry simultaneously.

Wikibooks are an additional application conducive to using wiki technologies. In Wikibooks, multiple people work together in writing and editing an online book. As in any other wiki technology, it is possible to track the history of revisions and additions done to each section of the Wikibook.

Having students adding a new entry in Wikipedia or writing a chapter for an existing Wikibook can become an empowering activity because students will know that their work is actually contributing to the world’s knowledge, while at the same time, they’re learning to work collaboratively. However, in order to guarantee the quality and accuracy of the postings, instructors might want to play to role of editors.

Reference:Konieczny, P. (2007, January). Wikis and Wikipedia as a teaching tool. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Education, 4(1), 15-34. Retrieved on June 25, 2010, from http://itdl.org/Journal/Jan_07/article02.htm

Connectivism, Social Knowledge, and Participatory Learning

The main idea behind Connectivism is that learning is a network phenomenon, in other words that we, as social beings, learn better when we interact with others than being alone. In some way, we could say that it is similar to Vygotsky’s Social Constructivism theory in the sense that it emphasizes the social context as a key element for cognitive development. For Vygotsky, learning was also a social and collaborative activity; according to this theory the only way a person can go beyond his/her own Zone of Proximal Development is precisely with the help of someone more capable.

Social knowledge and Participatory learning share similar ideas as Social Constructivism and Connectivism. However, in my opinion it seems that Connectivism attempts to go even further in emphasizing the social aspect of learning. For connectivists like George Siemens knowledge does not only exists in individual persons but it also exists in the network itself, in the material world. Connectivism also pays particular attention to the role that technology plays in allowing people to communicate among them. According to Siemens, learning can be aided by socialization and Web 2.0 technology such as wikis, blogs, podcasts, social networks, etc. (Siemens, 2006).

Personally, I consider myself an advocate of social learning. After all, there are hundreds of studies that have proven that collaborative and cooperative strategies, when well applied, promote more learning gains than when studying alone. Some of these studies were conducted by Johnson & Johnson, some others by Slavin, etc. Likewise, I believe that if used properly, Web 2.0 technology could be effective in promoting learning as well.


References:

Siemens, G. (2006). Connectivism: Learning Theory or Pastime for the Self-Amused?. Retrieved October 18, 2010 from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism_self-amused.htm

Open Educational Resources and OpenCourseWare

In my opinion, Open Educational Resources (OER) are the most compelling evidence that the world of learning is truly open. Many academic institutions are embracing the philosophy of knowledge sharing, so instead of keeping their course content confidential and private, they are releasing it to anyone. OpenCourseWare (OCW) was an initiative started by MIT and several other institutions have joined it gradually. According to the MIT’s OCW website (http://ocw.mit.edu/about/ocw-consortium/) in 2008 there were 250 universities that formed part of the OCW consortium.

Language is a critical issue of OERs and OCWs. Even though there are online products that translate automatically from one language to another, the translation is not entirely accurate most of the times. So, it is remarkable that there are organizations comprised mainly of people who volunteer their time and efforts to translating the OERs and OCWs content and to adapt it into a specific culture. One of these organizations is the OpenSource OpenCourseWare Prototype System (OOPS) lead by Lucifer Chu. OOPS is in the process of translating and adapting MIT OpenCourseWare into Chinese.

In spite of people’s good intentions to contribute their time and effort to translating the courseware, there is always the risk of the quality of the translation, especially if they do not master the content area they are trying to translate. Critics of organizations like OOPS attack mainly the quality of the translations, arguing that “no information is better than wrong information”. To help improving the quality of the translation process, organizations should not only depend on the work of volunteers but also should consider hiring professional editors who review the final stages of the process. Having access to content about any topic in your own language is only the first step. A second important step is for other academic institutions to design a plan about how to make use of the content in the most effective way.

The Movement Toward Free and Open Source Software

Coming from a developing country I have learned to appreciate and value the importance of the open source initiative. The current costs and licensing policies to use commercial applications is simply too expensive for many public institutions in developing countries to be able to afford them. Moreover, many software companies are now charging an annual fee for using an application, so instead of being a just one-time payment, institutions must pay every year as long as they want to use it. No wonder that most public academic institutions in Latin America are using a variety of open source software such as Linux, Apache, and Moodle.

Being free is just one of the advantages of open source software. An additional great advantage is that the source code is available to practically anyone, also free of charge. By providing the source code, anyone who has the programming knowledge and skills could contribute to fix some of the existing issues with the application or to add new features in order to keep improving it. Indeed, the quality of several open source applications rivals or even exceeds that of commercial products. For instance, the Apache web server is used by about 55% of more than 200 million websites around the world (http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2010/02/22/february_2010_web_server_survey.html).

Certainly, the open source initiative could be criticize from different points of views, such as:
a) Not all open source programs have sufficient quality.
b) It’s difficult to find good manuals and documentation to use some open source programs.
c) There is no guarantee that a specific open source program will not be deprecated very soon.
d) Companies and programmers should be compensated for their time and effort.
e) It takes longer for open source programs to be released or patched.

The Continued Expansion of Blended and Fully Online Learning

I found really interesting and exciting the reports that show the great increase of online courses and online programs across all academic levels in the United States. Indeed, according to the most recent Allen and Seaman’s (2010) "Learning on Demand" report (located at http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/survey/pdf/learningondemand.pdf) there was a 17% annual growth in online enrollment from 2007 to 2008. In my opinion this increase shows that students are having more confidence in taking online courses and that academic institutions already started understanding the importance of offering fully online programs. However, hopefully the fact that the demand for online learning is increasing might not somehow jeopardize the quality of some programs which just for offering online courses too would not be properly designed and developed.

On the other hand, it was little bit discouraging to read the results of the Eduventures (2010) report regarding the trends in instructional tool usage in online education programs because it seems that most online programs are heavily text-based which means that institutions are not really investing time and effort in utilizing some of the new technologies provided by the Internet. Of course, this statement doesn’t necessarily imply that by using more recent technologies online courses will be taught better. Institutions should also provide the professional development opportunities for instructors to learn the best practices to integrate such technologies into their virtual classrooms.

Personally, I think that the trend is that little by little institutions will implement new technologies as part of their online courses such as mobile learning, Web 2.0, immersive environments, etc. The appropriate integration of these technologies will then boost the continued expansion of online learning not only in the United States but in other countries as well. As a matter of fact, there are many countries still reluctant to take advantage of the benefits provided by online education. Education institutions in those countries might already offer a blended program or a few online courses but not a fully online program. It will be interesting to see if other countries follow the same growth in online courses as the United States within the following years.

References
Allen, I. E., & Seaman, J. (2010, January). Learning On Demand: Online Education in the United States, 2009.

Trends in Instructional Tool Usage in Online Education Programs, Research Brief, Eduventures, February 2010

E-Books

Yeah, I know that there are many advantages of using e-books such as portability, accessibility, and probably the most important, promoting ecology by saving trees. However, I'm not completely convinced that these advantages are enough to support the Governator's plan to replace all textbooks in schools in California. It seems that the main reason he's doing that is trying to save in the consumption of textbooks but I wonder if there are other alternatives (such as simply re-using the textbooks) .

I'm not againts e-books, I think it's awesome to be able to have books online, especially if they have advanced features such as bookmarking, highlighting and providing word definitions. However my main concern of replacing textbooks by e-books is that not all of the kids will be able to afford a digital divice to access the e-books and even if they did, there is always a big chance of the device being stolen, broken or becoming obsolete. For instance, my HP Jornada PocketPC just lasted 3 years before becoming obsolete and based on my own experience, most devices last just about that long.

Digital Literacy

In the 21st century, being literate means knowing more than just read and write. A literate person will be that one who knows how to effectively use information technologies and how to integrate them in their daily professional and personal lives.

However, according to the 21st Century Skills organization, there seems to exist a "profound gap between the knowledge and skills most students learn in school and the knowledge and skills they need in typical 21st century communities and workplaces" (21st Century Skills report, n.d.). One of the possible reasons for this gap is that current teachers and school administrators are relunctant to use them or simply don't possess the knowledge and expertise to integrate current technologies into their classrooms.

There are still many people who consider technology to be more harmful than helpful, e.g. Jarion Lanier and Nicholas Carr. They argue that technology is diminishing our mental abilities, for instance, we are not exercising our brains any more to learn several phone numbers since now we depend completely of our phone devices to store them. Furthermore, Carr argues that several studies show that people are not reading books any more because they have a harder time trying to focus.

Personally, I think that it is important for students to become digital literates because they will have more and better professional opportunities. To me, being literate also includes to be wise about using the technology in the most appropriate way. Also, it is important that students develop strategic thinking skills because tecnology as such is constantly changing. As instructors we need to prepare students so they can easily re-adjust their skills when a new technology comes up.

References:

Learning for the 21st Century (A Report and MILE Guide for 21st Century Skills) (no date). http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/downloads/P21_Report.pd