Reading and Writing Online: WebQuests, wikis and blogs Tilly Harrison University of Warwick

Aims Hands-on experience of editing a wiki Experience of a (mini) WebQuest Collaboration Chance to reflect, discuss, evaluate Fun

Overview Context New Literacies WebQuests Wikis Own Project - years 1 and 2 How blogs interact W.W.W. (Wiki WebQuest Workshop) Types of wiki

New Literacies Discuss in pairs or more In your context, what are the key skills needed for reading? How are they changing? What are the key skills needed for writing? How are they changing?

Bloom’s Taxonomy - Cognitive Domain KNOWLEDGE drawing out factual answers, testing recall and recognition COMPREHENSION translating, interpreting and extrapolating APPLICATION to situations that are new, unfamiliar or have a new slant for students

Cognitive Domain - higher levels of thinking skills ANALYSIS breaking down into parts, forms SYNTHESIS combining elements into a pattern not clearly there before EVALUATION according to some set of criteria, and state why

Constructivism Schema Theory existing background knowledge determines interpretation of new experiences enables us to make predictions Knowledge is organised We recognise patterns The learner constructs knowledge making use of what s/he already knows The learner is not an ‘empty vessel’ Collaboration, negotiation of meaning and reflection are key for learning

History of WebQuests Started 1995 (now twelve years old!) San Diego State University Bernie Dodge and Tom March Part of teacher training course Now a large and growing site with many examples for all areas of education

Definition of WebQuests “A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity in which most or all of the information used by learners is drawn from the Web. WebQuests are designed to use learners' time well, to focus on using information rather than looking for it, and to support learners' thinking at the levels of analysis, synthesis and evaluation.” Dodge

WebQuests and constructivism “ Built into the WebQuest process are the strategies of cognitive psychology and constructivism. First, the question posed to students can not be answered simply by collecting and spitting back information. A WebQuest forces students to transform information into something else: a cluster that maps out the main issues, a comparison, a hypothesis, a solution, etc. ” March 1998

Scaffolding “ In order to engage students in higher level cognition, WebQuests use scaffolding or prompting which has been shown to facilitate more advanced thinking… By breaking the task into meaningful "chunks" and asking students to undertake specific sub- tasks, a WebQuest can step them through the kind of thinking process that more expert learners would typically use..” March 1998

WebQuest essentials 1.Introduction 2.Task 3.Sources 4.Description of Process Steps 5.Guidance 6.Conclusion

WebQuest Taskonomy Retelling Compilation Mystery Journalistic Design Creative Product Consensus Building Persuasion Self-Knowledge Analytical Judgement Scientific

WebQuest scaffolding Reception Scaffolding –to help the students get started Transformation Scaffolding – to help the students transform the information Production Scaffolding –to help the students show what they have gained

Wikis Name from Hawaiian meaning ‘quick’ “A type of website that allows users to add and edit content easily and is especially suited to collaborative writing” Wikipedia Changes are recorded so that previous states can be recovered if necessary. Accumulative rather than sequential (forums) Collective rather than individual (blogs)

Examples (all free) Editthis iewiki.net PeanutButterwiki Seedwiki Tiddlywiki Wikispaces Wikiwikiweb

Blogs Name from the combination of ‘web’ (Internet) and ‘log’ (diary) which became ‘weblog’ and then ‘we blog’ to give the verb and noun ‘blog’. “A user-generated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in reverse chronological order.” Wikipedia “A personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world.” Blogger.com Readers of a blog can leave comments but cannot change entries.

Examples Blogger (free) WordPress (free) Typepad Basic (subscription) Blogware (via local retailers) Movable Type (for businesses) Warwick Blogs (institution-specific)

Comparison BlogsWikis PersonalCommunal Fixed entriesEditable entries Better for opinions, reviews Better for facts, summaries Good for autonomyGood for collaboration SequentialNo fixed sequence

CONTEXT OF PROJECT Chinese students at the University of Warwick. 2+2 BA English Language, Translation and Cultural Studies. Advanced Language Skills Vocabulary

Own Project Year 1 Chinese Undergraduates Weekly task to add one word to wiki Gradual build up of relevant vocabulary for group Generally positive comments at end of year but mixed overall - not a clear winner! Potential for supporting autonomy can be taken further

Process Every week each student - one word from their week’s reading. Full context sentence and the source reference. Definition in a good dictionary. Mnemonic using Chinese Link to their word on the wiki page for that week. Make wiki page for word. Editable by teacher and peers

Results Enthusiastic adopters to reluctant or antagonistic First year 30 students - huge range of words - not all academic Second year 12 students - easier to handle, more sense of community Mnemonic a burden for some

Trust “Wiki requires not only trust in the technology but also trust in an on-line community.” Jonathan Davies “It provides a platform for us to exchange and share words... this is also a team work.” ZQ “Our pages could be changed by any other people. I think it is very bad.” GY

Positive Comments about wikis A very good way to exchange knowledge It gives me another chance to see what books/materials my friends are reading A good chance to have a weekly practice regularly - I like the idea of interacting on-line I can know how the others feel about my work. It’s easy and fun to edit It made me get used to pay much attention to the new words I encountered in my reading

Example of wiki site

Example of wiki entry

Negative Comments How to motivate the students to look at the website is an essential thing, because last year not many people visit the website regularly Personally I prefer paper based homework I prefer to look up in the dictionary when learning new words I think it depends on different people. To me, I find it did not work very well. Can be changed easily by accident and the reliability is in doubt I just doubt the correctness of those words put by students.

Lessons for the future  Students need to build trust in the wiki community Autonomy is also a gradual process Wiki and learners’ autonomy will grow and strengthen each other Types of wiki offer rich possibilities for collaborative projects Tasks must be directly relevant (integrated into course)

New direction “You’d better give a long context concluding many useful vocabularies, not only a sentence and a vocabulary, in order to let students learn them and memory (sic) them more easily.” Good argument for a text-based wiki - students choose and annotate in groups.

Own Project Year 2 Move to new wiki Weekly task to add two words to wiki Fortnightly task to ‘blog’ a given topic (personal reflection) Wiki is used for a spokesperson to summarise the blog comments Wiki can be corrected and changes are available for study Other projects such as commenting on academic texts not so successful.

WWW! Get into groups Look at the instructions in the handout Do the WebQuest for the area you are interested in Write up your conclusions on the wiki.

Today’s Three Wikis WIKISPACES SEEDWIKI n_elt/new_technologies_in_elt PBWIKI (password=IATEFL)

Micropedia Vocabulary collections Customised for class, subject area, interest etc. context sentences, definitions, mnemonics Topic / subject area notebooks notes on key concepts, examples, questions and answers Knowledge centre on a specific area such as living in **** (town / campus) for benefit of class and future students what to bring, where to go to shop / eat / have fun, where to find things out,

FAQ Self generated questions and answers General questions to do with course content, language issues, learning strategies etc. Answered by peers / teacher / both?

Collaborative writing Group project work on a controversial topic, roles assigned on opposite sides, drafts written read and revised by both parties till a consensus reached for final document (a contract, peace treaty, pay deal etc.)

Creative writing Students collaborate to create a fantasy story that has choices at strategic points in the plot.

Branching Simulation Given an imaginary situation, students compose choices for action and consequences for each of these. Could be used to describe stages and choices in writing an essay.

Multi-actor Simulation Given an imaginary scenario, a number of participants each follow through their choices and actions, intersecting at various points. Could be used to describe different learners’ strategies to approaching a task or objective (such as improving speaking skill).

Exegesis Close reading of a text Set text with added definitions, notes, questions, comments Analysis of news story Current news item with added definitions, background information, comment

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