12/8/06 Braden Teams LX Blackboard Wiki Tool Collaborative Communities for Students to Assist Critical Thinking Kathleen Braden

12/8/06 Braden Teams LX Open-Sourcing and Wikis My dissatisfaction with Fall Economic Geography course Friedman book: flattener #4: Open- sourcing: “Everyone should have free access to all human knowledge” The idea of WikipediaWikipedia

12/8/06 Braden Teams LX Networked Learning Centre for Research on Networked LearningCentre for Research on Networked Learning

What’s Different About Wikiproject from Merely a Group Activity? Feedback Loop and Construction of Ideas- this should emerge as a dynamic process Wiki technology provides ability for Braden and classmate interaction, along principles of Wikipedia Wiki technology allows Braden to assess your participation at a detailed level

USING TEAMS Student Manual Is Posted on Blackboard under Course Information (Adobe Acrobat format) “Teams LX provides instructors with a tool for creating group projects and assignments as well as an editable knowledge base (a digital collection of knowledge and information) to support the course materials.” “Teams LX is a tool for problem based learning. Teams allows students to work cooperatively in groups as they seek to formulate, organize and present their solutions online in the form of rich media websites. Using an easy to use browser- based editor, students collaboratively author web content, upload images, link to documents and external resources. Teams provides instructors a rich set of assessment tools that allow them to gauge the individual contributions of each student and to track the changes being made to the group site.”

Experience with Wiki Tool on Blackboard GEO 3500 Winter 2006-complex team projects of 5-6 students each and oral presentation GEO 4900 Spring 2006-two person teams building a consensus document GEO 2207 Fall 2006-three person teams doing a report Winter 2007: for GEO 3500 in conjunction with social venture competition from SBE doing a business plan

Suggested Steps 1.What can this tool provide you that will help achieve your pedagogic goals for the class? 2.Can you invest a little time in investigating it before class starts? 3.Design a project for students that requires team authorship and knowledge construction- don’t make it too complicated 4.Determine how you will assess it and make that clear to students; give deadlines 5.Do some check-ins to see how it is going 6.Come up with a “presentation” scheme to share results

Steps to Adding a Wiki Site to Blackboard Decide on the assignment you want to give students Let’s say you decide to have students create a common document in two teams and place the projects under “Course Documents” You will note in control panel that all SPU faculty now can access Wikis on Blackboard

12/8/06 Braden Teams LX

You can control…. Do you want to allow students to edit the wiki? Do you want to allow students to comment on wiki pages? Choose the dates and times for which students will be allowed to edit the wiki tool. Choose the dates and times for which the wiki tool can be viewed by students. How shall public references to students be displayed?

12/8/06 Braden Teams LX Then Add a Wiki Tool Under Appropriate Part of Blackboard Course Content Area While in control panel, go to Course Documents and look in upper right hand corner under “Select”, then scroll to bottom to see Teams Site

12/8/06 Braden Teams LX Configure Each Team Once you tell Blackboard you want to add a team, a dialog box will open that will allow you to make comments about it, select team members from class list, or pre-designated group, set up dates for access, decide who gets to edit, etc.

12/8/06 Braden Teams LX Using the Team Site

12/8/06 Braden Teams LX Instructor Can get a History of Who Has Made What Contributions

12/8/06 Braden Teams LX

How do I know who did the work?: page history List of students and when each made a contribution

12/8/06 Braden Teams LX Version 42

12/8/06 Braden Teams LX Version 43 Sarah has added in information about Haiti’s debt

12/8/06 Braden Teams LX What Can Go Wrong? Learning From My Mistakes Making it unnecessarily complicated for students- suggest starting out with one Wiki on one part of Blackboard Give students clear instructions and help them get started with format for a document explain how their contributions show up and are assessed (otherwise, they may be contributing off the Team site and you can’t see it to verify) If you use them, make comments mandatory or rewarded somehow by non-Team members

12/8/06 Braden Teams LX Taking Next Step for Critical Thinking Need to link Wiki- approach with critical thinking about Internet Students need to be assessing validity of sites they find Suggest creation of controversial common document that would force coming to consensus or at least seeing modifications

12/8/06 Braden Teams LX Some Ideas from Students Start out with simple approach -just use Teams on one spot of Blackboard so students can get accustomed to it Make the document around a controversial topic so there well be interest in developing and modifying Instructor should be referee and critic from beginning- students need guidance! Instructor should establish some specific check-in and grading points along the way to discourage slackers & procrastinators Need to find any short document as “sourdough starter” to get students going- it’s hard for them otherwise to know how to plunge in This might not be an appropriate tool for freshmen Comments should be structured to be meaty and not just busy-work because students have to comment

12/8/06 Braden Teams LX David Wilhite’s Experience with Wiki tool Kathleen, I used the wiki tool for the first time this quarter for my Exploring Christian Doctrine: The Church (THEO 3401). This tool literally salvaged my course. I made a lot of rookie mistakes, and there are many things I would do differently, including following closer to David Wicks' suggestions for the wiki. Nevertheless, despite my shortcomings this tool held the course together and allowed the students to synthesize the material. The 12 students kept their own blogs (also through Blackboard), and interacted with each others blogs all quarter. They then used the wiki tool to co- author a Declaration on the Church, which they agreed to post online for anyone to view ( They eagerly invite comment on this, so feel free to review this very brief statement and provide feedback. I think you may be surprised (pleasantly) by some of their conclusions. (In fact, I think it is an especially relevant statement given the recent events with Mars Hill.) I recommend this to anyone considering collaborative work in their courses. Best wishes, David Wilhite, Ph.D.

12/8/06 Braden Teams LX Braden Conclusions I will use the Wiki tool on regular basis and keep refining it We have to find a different way to equip our students to manage the vast amount of information available to them on internet We have to help them be critical knowledge constructors and not just passive recipients At end of day, they are still students and need as much guidance as we can offer