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Are Wikis and Weblogs an appropriate approach to foster collaboration, reflection and students’ motivation

Mathias Krebs, Christian Schmidt, Michael Henninger, Matthias Ludwig & Wolfgang Müller

22nd September 2008WCC 2010 (KCKS), Brisbane

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The post-graduate colloquium on e-learning in schools as a basis for life-long learning

Co-operation of three Universities of Education– Seven PhD students – Funded by the federal state Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Research at the University of Education Weingarten focuses on the potential of digital media to foster:– Students’ motivation– Students’ reflection processes – Collaboration

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Weblogs at School – A Tool to Foster Self-determined and Motivated Learning as well as Reflection?

Previous results suggest that weblogs are well suited to increase students’ motivation and reflection (Pullich 2007; Spannagel 2007)

Lack of empirical evidence

Self-determination theory of motivation (Ryan & Deci 2000)

– Autonomy– Relatedness– Competence

Reflection as a process of problem evaluation and solution– Externalization– Peer feedback

Influence learning motivation

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Research Design

No weblog44 students

Class weblog61 students

Individual weblog22 students

Self-determination Index

Reflection

May

Control variables

June July

Questionnaires QuestionnairesInterviews

4 weeks blog project

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Results: Self-determination Index

0

0,2

0,4

0,6

0,8

1

1,2

No Weblog Class Weblog Individual Weblog

T1

T2

n.s.n.s.

n.s.

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Next Steps

Further analysis of quantitative data

Analysis of qualitative material– 25 interviews with students (n=19) and

teachers (n=6)– 342 blog posts– 1.115 comments

Design of further studies, based on the results of this research

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Impact on writing skills (Forte & Bruckmann 2006; Hend 2008; Wheeler & Wheeler 2007, 2009)

Students consider wikis as useful (Hend 2008; Deters, Cuthrell & Stapleton 2010)

Students concentrate on the sections they are responsible for (Grant 2006; Leung 2009)

Less collaboration and communication in wikis (Judd, Kennedy & Cropper 2010, Choy & Ng 2007; Krebs & Ludwig 2009)

Wiki activities facilitated collaborative learning (Minocha & Thomas 2007)

Utilizing Wikis for Collaboration and Knowledge sharing in Mathematical Projects

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Instead of traditional exams (paper and pencil test) students are doing project work using a Wiki as an evidence of achievement.

Student 1School 1

Student 2School 2

Projecttopic

Student 3School 2

Study: Implementation of a Wiki in German Schools

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Students used the wiki primarily for– Documentation of the project progress– Explanation, discussions and questions

Students used the wiki infrastructure to communicate and to ask questions if they didn’t understand procedures and calculations contributed by other project members.

But: – Hardly any correction (editing, deletion) of content (text) from

other project members– Linear writing from top to bottom

Experiences and first conservative results

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Thank you for listening

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Contact

Christian Schmidt

University of Education Weingarten

Kirchplatz 2

88250 Weingarten

Germany

E-mail: schmidt@ph-weingarten.de

Tel. +49(0)751 - 5018576

Twitter: http://twitter.com/crossyard

Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/crossyard

Mathias Krebs

University of Education Weingarten

Kirchplatz 2

88250 Weingarten

Germany

E-mail: krebs@md-phw.de

Tel. +49(0)751 – 5018081

http://www.ph-weingarten.de/medien-und-bildungsmanagement

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References

Deters, F.; Cuthrell, K. & Stapleton, J. (2010). Why Wikis? Student Perceptions of Using Wikis in Online Coursework. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching Vol. 6, No. 1, March 2010.

Forte, A. & Bruckman, A. (2006). From Wikipedia to the classroom: Exploring online publication and learning. International Conference on Learning Sciences. Proceedings of the 7th international conference on Learning sciences, Indiana: Bloomington, 182-188.

Grant (2006). Using Wikis in Schools: a Case Study. Futurelab.

Hend, S. Al-Khalifa (2008). Wikis in Classroom Participation: Results From Preliminary Experiment. http://hend-alkhalifa.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/i-tec2008.pdf

Judd, T., Kennedy, G. & Cropper, S. (2010). Using wikis for collaborative learning: Assessing collaboration through contribution. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology 2010, 26(3), 341-354.

Krebs, M. & Ludwig, M. (2009). Erste Erfahrungen beim Mathematiklernen mit Wikis. In: Neubrand, M. (Ed.), Beiträge zum Mathematikunterricht, Franzbecker, Hildesheim.

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References

Leung, C. (2009). Using Wikis for Collaborative Learning: a Case Study of an Undergraduate Students’ Group Project in Hong Kong.

Minocha, S. & Thomas, P. (2007). Collaborative learning in a wiki environment: Experiences from a software engineering course. New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia, 13(2), 187-209.

Pullich, L. (2007). Weblogs als Lernjournale. Kommunikation und Reflexion mit Weblogs im Rahmen akademischer Abschlussarbeiten. IfBM.Impuls – Schriftenreihe des Instituts für Bildungswissenschaft und Medienforschung (2007)

Ryan, R.M., Deci, E.L.: Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New Directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25, 54--67 (2000)

Sheung On Choy & Kwok Chi Ng (2007). Implementing wiki software for supplementing online learning. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology 2007, 23(2), 209-226.

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References

Spannagel, C. (2007). Eine Weblog-Umgebung zur Förderung selbstbestimmt motivierten Lernens.In: Rensing, C., Rößling, G. (Eds.) Procedings der Pre-Conference Workshops der 5. e-Learning Fachtagung Informeatik DeLFI 2007, Siegen, September 2007, pp. 11—18.Logos, Berlin (2007)

Wheeler, S. & Wheeler, D. (2007). Evaluating Wiki as a tool to promote quality academic writing skills. Conference ICL, 26 - 28 September 2007, Villach.

Wheeler, S. & Wheeler, D. (2009). Using wikis to promote quality learning in teacher training. Learning Media and Technology. Vol. 34, No. 1, 2009.