Wikis refers to a collection of Webpage that the users can easily access and be able to edit as well as adding the extra information. They are a combination of interlinked web pages that can be expanded easily to access information in many databases. The use of wikis in language is increasing very rapidly making it an issue of concern that needs close monitoring. The contain drilldown capabilities so that the user can collect as much as possible information relating the subject or topic of study. Wikis are inherently simple to operate making sharing and access of information easy. An example of the wiki technology is Wikipedia, which facilitates easier distribution of information from many encyclopedias. Wikis enables generation and maintenance of the works of reference for easier access by the public.
In the context of access controls, it determines who should be able to see and edit the contents of the wiki. The wikis should be regulated such that the information posted is trustable and reliable to the users. The wikis especially the teaching wikis should be regulated such that the trusted party edit and add the relevant content of information for purposes of learning and teaching. The interface used may determine how accessible the wiki is.
.The evolution in the wikis enabled access to the information but it does allow the users to update the inconsistent and irrelevant information in order to enhance security of information and this helps improve credibility of the information in these wikis.
Article 1
Using wikis to enhance and develop writing skills among secondary school students in Hong Kong
Barley Mak, David Coniam
Students designed and joined various drafts of a description of their newly joined secondary school. As part of assignment students used wikis functioning to edit and revise their description. Student’s collaborative writing in terms of writing functionality shows that to many students formatting of their own work is rare. Considering the various types of writings student’s organization, correction, and expansion of work differs in different writings. In product-oriented approaches writings students expand their work by adding words and sentences to what they already have. It is also very individualistic when it comes to free writing of say half of a standard page.
It was found that students discussed rather than formulating the general ideas about the school environment and concepts of the brochure. This was in stage one where students work progress was monitored by the teacher without doing any correction. It was at this stage that familiarization, preparation of the project took place, and it took the first one week.
Stage 2 is the kernel of the project and lasted for five weeks and it showed some editing and revision of work. Group 6 students who were working on the title “Happy and Sad Life at Shatin Pui Ying” collaborated and put together this part of the brochure. However, in the early days of the project students were just adding text to the previous works. With time students were used to each other as socialization increase and thus they started editing beach others work. For instance, Jane elaborated previous work from “I think secondary school is free. I am enjoying secondary school life. I think I will be happy in secondary school.” To “I think secondary school is free. I am enjoying secondary school life. I like secondary school because I have more friends than primary school! My friends some is my class or another class. I feel happy in secondary school!”
Wikis enhance the gradual development of student’s ideas and writing skills as it created a platform for exchange of information. I absence of wikis group collaboration in writing s would have involved forwarding of one’s script to every individual group member who work on the paper and give individual feedback and then finalized after investigating every response. This is cumbersome and time consuming thus too uneconomical. With wikis group community is enhance as members come together and work on their ideas at the same time such that students’ collaborative writing is enhanced. The ease of idea sharing is also facilitated as individual writing is done and later collaboratively. At the end of the project it is evident that students started reorganizing their work and their ideas. Writing is a continuous function and is developed with time. In this article, the t-unit analysis shows that the contribution of each student increases with time. The writing of the brochure-increased student’s creativity and mastering of the subject school brochure writing.
Critique
The accuracy of expansion, reorganization, and correction of data lacks enough information to support the coherence improvement notion. The scope is limited to the specific time of the school thus describing the brochure at that particular time and with wikis once information is run then editing and adjustment is limited. Teaching wikis are often restricted to the people learning in the same class. The restriction of the wikis may limit interaction and collaboration of the members of the community.
Article 2
Exploring Wiki-Mediated Collaborative Writing: A Case Study in an Elementary Spanish Course
The results of the article support the previous research finding on the effectiveness of wikis in development of language in writings. Students enjoyed using wikis in writing, collection and communication of data than using the traditional way. Students agreed that their use of wikis in contributions to wikis pages helped them to write a letter better in class composition. Wikis assisted the students to organize thoughts and ideas more quickly in academic writings. For instance in class essays, a student testifies, that he was able to organize his ideas as if to have been using a map. Wikis also helped the students to have a self-reflection into their work by revising and making corrections. Students can foster their critical reflection and organizational skills. Wikis also helped the students to develop topics and the use of grammar points and wikis writings for wikis served as extensional practice of class work. It is also evident that the choice of topic affected the degree of students participation in the collaborative writings as students wrote various amount of words depending on the topic. Application of social linguistic is enhanced as students practice of various words in the social context.
It was found that wikis is of great importance due to the excellent tasks which the student were able to accomplish through the interactive sessions using the wikis. This has helped the students to promote the collaborative writing process. In this case the students could do prevision of their work on wikis making them to discuss facts relating to each piece of writing in a question. This enabled them to correct the mistakes related to essay writing where one could not do for oneself.
The students from different thirty-five unities were able to discuss that essay writing through an interactive site giving them access to a wider scope in relation to knowledge and ideas leading to excellent writing skills.
Wikis create an interactive learning environment such that the students can have aces to the information as well as contributes to editing the content of the wikis and this helps them in developing their writing skills by sharing the information the relevant information in through the wikis. The students may help others correct their writing and language skills through the interactive site, which is the wikis. The writers will therefore be able to share their experience and knowledge in order to improve their skills as well as expanding their knowledge in the field of writing. Wikis has greatly enhanced networking in the learning environment has enabled students to share information pertaining to their writing techniques and skills.
The research on this case shows that the wiki has greatly helped the students through this exchange program making writing an easy task. This exchange of information through wikis needs more research in order to improve the sharing of complex information.
Critique
Synchronous editing is not possible in the wikis such the users cannot make changes to the wikis on the same time. The study is on learners only it is worthwhile studying also the instructors so as to understand the role of wikis in giving instructions which uses languge. The research is based on post survey.
References
Clarke, A. (2011). How to use technology effectively in post-compulsory education. Abingdon, Oxon: Rout ledge.
Pernisco, N., Abbott, B., Carmelina Films (Firm), Films Media Group, & Films for the Humanities & Sciences (Firm) (2011). Wikis in the classroom. New York, N.Y: Films Media Group.
Seo, K. K. (2012). Using social media effectively in the classroom: Blogs, wikis, twitter, and more. New York, NY: Rout ledge.
Veletsianos, G. (2010). Emerging technologies in distance education. Edmonton: AU Press.
Walser, N. (2011). Spotlight on technology in education. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard Education Press.
