Using wikis with research projects and portfolios

by Celeste Scholz

This paper documents a presentation at the TESOL '08 Conference in New York City on April 3, 2008. Find the Power Point abstract, slides and handout at http://cscholz.home.att.net/presen.html .

Introduction
The World Wide Web has available applications and services that allow users to easily post original content. Many call this trend Web 2.0 or the read-write web. To get an idea of just how extensive this trend is, click on this link to view a trend map: http://www.informationarchitects.jp/slash/iA_WebTrends_2007_2_1440x900.gif Looking at the lower left corner, you will see Wikipedia, the largest and most well-known wiki, an encyclopedia that allows user to edit its content.

Wiki is the short form of the Hawaiian phrase ‘wiki wiki', which means fast. A wiki is a web site made of wiki pages, or web pages. A wiki is a powerful, free Internet tool that allows users to quickly create web pages organized into web sites without special training. The web page editing screen has recognizable formatting tools as shown in figure 1 from https://www.wikispaces.com a large, educational wiki provider.

Although the tools are limited, wikis have a number of exceptional capabilities that enhance web page creation for educational use both individually and collaboratively. This paper will focus firstly on the features of wikis and secondly on their use with student-created research projects and portfolios. Four features commonly available from Internet wiki providers are discussion tab, history tab, privacy choices and uploaded media files.

When you click on one of the links under Subject, your screen looks like figure 3 showing the username, user's profile photo, date and time in addition to the main text of the comment.

The comments are useful for peer and self-evaluations as well as those of teachers and parents. This is example is from the K12 Online 2006 Conference at http://k12wiki.wikispaces.com/Student+Data+Storage-+Needs+and+Methods

Each saved page has a link to that version represented by the date and time. When the link is clicked, the deletions are highlighted in red and the additions in green as seen in figure 5.

A' revert to this version' button on the page also allows a user to resave the web page in a previous version. Participants easily track the changes and avoid losing anyone's work, invaluable during distance collaboration. Classroom teachers can also tell who contributed to the webpage if it is assigned for work outside of class.

Privacy settings
Privacy settings determined by the teacher or organizer include public, protected and private. Protected allows anyone to view web pages but only members to edit the pages while private permits only members to view and edit. When working with sensitive material, password protection at the private level gives everyone peace of mind.

Documents, images, slide shows, voice recordings, videos
You can upload documents (.doc), images (.jpg) and voice recordings (.mp3), to your wiki by clicking on the ‘tree' icon on the toolbar. Images show directly on your webpage and documents and voice recordings show as hyperlinks that the reader clicks. You can also link to videos (ie, youTube) and slide shows (ie, SlideShare) published by others. To do this, click the TV icon on the toolbar and follow the instructions for the correct media.

In Web Design class, students chose a related topic either individually or in pairs and developed a webpage based on their own ideas formulated through research. A rubric found at http://cacpeaceday.wikispaces.com/HS+Web+Design guided the students' efforts.

Examine Saad's exemplary work at http://cacpeaceday.wikispaces.com/Aftermath+of+war . You can see that he created an interesting, well thought out webpage that includes a video and the required citation of resources. His ideas are in his own words and easy-to-follow, through his use of subheadings to get the reader's attention.

The reflection included a thumbnail image of each spread and the answers to five questions: For which deadline was the spread? What do you like best about this spread? What did you learn doing this spread? What risks did you take? How would improve this spread knowing what you know now?

The rubric in figure 6 guided the students' efforts. Find the complete rubric at http://cacyearbook.wikispaces.com/reflect_rubric

Students were able to look at exemplars of student reflections from Yearbook 07, the previous class. Adriana's reflections at http://cacyearbook.wikispaces.com/adriana met the criteria at the A level, because she details her journey over the past 3 quarters in a thoughtful way, highlighting her risks taking and progress. The thumbnails help the reader visualize descriptive comments.

After their reflections were complete, students commented on their classmates' reflections by using the discussion feature of the wiki. The rubric in figure 7 shows that thoughtful comments are required about one spread, including an understanding of the classmates' reflection as the writer was required to agree or disagree with the classmate's statement. Find the complete rubric at: http://cacyearbook.wikispaces.com/response_rubric

Again, the students used the exemplary work of the previous year to inspire them. Tienjen's comment on Adriana's Spirit Week spread is one such example at: http://cacyearbook.wikispaces.com/message/view/adriana/359923 . She is thoughtful in commenting on three aspects of the spread and agreeing with Adriana's own reflection on color.

Conclusion
A quick review of the Cairo American College Peace Day and Yearbook wikis, shows that wikis have strong potential as course management systems, like Blackboard. Teachers can post assignments, attach handouts and list links to resources. This paper looks beyond those capabilities at two ways students can contribute to wikis by creating web pages on a research topic or portfolio reflections. These student contributions are made easier through powerful wiki features including discussion and history tab, privacy settings and use of sound and video media. Students create these webpages quickly and share them with their class or larger community. With free wiki providers for K-12 education like https://www.wikispaces.com/, teachers can experiment with wikis at no cost and harness the potential of Web 2.0 for their own classrooms.

Bibliography
Bellizzi, Dominick. "100,000 wikis in the classroom." [wikispaces.com wiki] Tangient. <http://www.wikispaces.com/site/for/teachers100K>.
Davis, Vicki. "Wiki Grading Rubric." K12 Online Conference 2007 . <http://k12online.wm.edu/WikiGradingRubric.pdf>. Davis, Vicki. "Student Data Storage - Needs & Methods." [k12wiki] 30Oct2006. K12 Online Conference. <http://k12wiki.wikispaces.com/Student+Data+Storage- +Needs+and+Methods>.
Popinchalk, Jocelyn. [CAC Peace Day wiki] 27Oct2007. Cairo American College. <http://cacpeaceday.wikispaces.com/>.
Scholz, Celeste. "HS Web Design." [CAC Peace Day wiki] 30Sep2007. Cairo American College. <http://cacpeaceday.wikispaces.com/HS+Web+Design>.
Scholz, Celeste. “Reflections 07” [CAC Yearbook wiki] 26Nov2007. Cairo American College. <http://cacyearbook.wikispaces.com/reflections07>.