Chapter 2: Literature Review
Meherun Nesa
Introduction
The goal of the literature review is to find out how Wiki has been used in education, especially,
teaching-learning English as a second language (ESL) and in particular training of teachers. The
goal of the research itself is to find whether using wikis to train ESL teachers makes them more
reflective and better able to design language learning spaces for their students. The first part of
the chapter focuses on the use of web 2.0 tools, and comparisons of different tools, and use of
Wiki in education. The second part concentrates on teaching learning English as a second
language, how language development can take place, collaboration as teaching procedure, and
the learning theories developed in supporting and explaining the use of Wiki as an educational
tool. The 3rd part is concerned with teachers’ role in designing space, activities, interaction online
and offline. Part 4 looks at how wikis have been used to train teachers.
Part 1: Web 2.0 in education
Web 2.0 tools like Wiki, Blog, SlideShare, Twitter, Social-Networking sites, Podcasting, Youtube are
being used in educational research and education enhancements (Ellis & Cohen, 2009) as these tools are
able to
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Create Open source content and application
Impact the classroom
Join a professional social network
Encourage collaboration
Enhance student interaction
Create easy-to-use interface for producing web pages
Build an online classroom
Publish research/project works
Manage discussions
Use as a presentation tool
Conduct debate
Solve problems collaboratively
Web 2.0 tools like Wikis and Blogs have features like self evaluation, giving judgment, reflection which
is promoted through participation and collaboration “The use of social software like wikis and weblogs
creates an opportunity for the constructivist design of problem-based learning activities, and supports
social networks of learners” (Kovacic, Bubas & Zlatovic, 2007).
Definitions and comparison of the different Web 2.0 tools
 Wiki - a visitor-edited resource such as an encyclopedia (Wikipedia). Open to anyone for
reading and posting. Any media can be included; images, pictures, video, audio, anything.
Students become co-creators of the content.
 Blog - a diary or news column type of page display, normally with a comments section for
readers' opinion. One person, the blogger possesses it. Comments can be shared. Blogs too
contain any media. Individual student/teacher is the creator of the content.
 Forum - a noticeboard program that allows people to start new topics or respond to existing
ones. Only written text media, and audio, video files as attachments can be included. A forum is
open for all equally teachers and students
Notari (2006) points out the ownership of forums and blogs remain with the creator; however,
the ownership of a wiki is equally shared by the users as well as the creator. This difference
makes a wiki more inviting as an educational tool as its use promotes ownership and can
continue after a course is over. In addition, a wiki lends itself to collaborative work more easily,
i.e. the same text can be edited and finalized by all users.
Wiki in education
The many useful aspects of Wiki in education has been pointed out by Wheeler & Wheeler
(2009) which include, collaborative writing, higher quality academic writing, communicating
ideas, generating course content and design activities. Wiki creates scopes for a virtual learning
environment. However, as pointed out by Wheeler & Wheeler (2009), the scope of collaboration
can be limited by the students’ reluctance to edit each other’s work.
Wiki with pedagogical potential engages learners in interactive activities. Learners become
content producers, designers, commentators, reviewers, assessors. Necessarily the engagement is
active, useful and satisfying. Wiki along with other social webs lead learners to new forms of
literacy that contribute toward collective knowledge (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006, as cited in
Wheeler & Whitton, 2007).
Learner activity, collaboration, and learning effectiveness are interrelated. Wiki provides a
collaborative space where constructivist learning can take place (Notari, 2006). For engaging
learners, the steps need to be stated specifically like, defining tasks, what exactly need to do in
the tasks, i.e., commenting, correcting others’, adding up to others . Depending on the nature of
activities, it needs to be mentioned whether learners work individually or in groups. Such work
has to be clearly defined. For designing Wiki courses/tasks the followings have been researched
as useful
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The course goals need to be mentioned
A real life case should be linked with course goal
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The main goal, working methods, communication channels, the way collaboration takes
place, and the time table have to be formulated
Starting student activities with easy tasks so that students can produce viewable output
within a short time
Quality regulation is not important in the beginning
A cycle in tasks need to be maintained, i.e., input, compare, comment, completion. It has
a feedback and self evaluation effect
Negotiating and discussing with others lead to construction of knowledge.
Wikis are now being extensively used in education as it supports constructivist learning activity
(Notari, 2006, Wheeler & Wheeler, 2009) however, efforts must be made to induce the
collaboration necessary to engage the learners.
Part 2: Wiki in training language writing
Use of Wiki in training writing is increasing as to experience the impact of the social
collaborative context in quality writing. The potential of Wiki lies in collaboration. Being a
public forum, Wiki encourages learners to view peer’s presentations, and explore other sides of
the issue in discussion.
Research shows that several students realize at an early stage that writing to the wiki was a
challenging exercise, for a number of reasons. A great deal of thought was required over
sentence construction, spelling and grammar before students were confident enough to publicly
post their writing (Wheeler & Wheeler, 2009)
Students work hard to keep up their image among fellow learners and other thousands of
imagined viewers. “Some 'impression management' was observed, which suggests that students
were aware of an audience greater than that constituted by their own peers” (Wheeler &
Wheeler, 2009).
One of the most useful utilities of the wiki was its capability to encourage students to
deal with smaller, more manageable 'chunks' of study. Although one student argued that
using the wiki did not appear to improve her writing, she admitted that it enabled her to
reduce her confusion about the topic as a whole.
Some students experienced a more acute awareness of the need to provide accurate
referencing to support the thoughts and ideas they posted to the wiki. Others discovered
that a more formal approach to writing would be appropriate for their postings to the
space, and adapted their style accordingly.
Wiki for improving English as a second language
As pointed out by the researchers (Wheeler & Wheeler):
 The use of wikis can turn students into content developers, enable peer-to-peer learning,
create a collaborative learning environment.
 Computer mediated communication can create learning communities, more active student
communities, facilitate critical thinking, problem solving, the development of writing
competence.
 Wikis as emerging technologies for online collaboration which language educators are
adopting
 Help prepare constructivist design of problem-based learning activities and support social
networks of learners.
 Active and rich pedagogies
 In designing wiki activities certain issues need to be taken into consideration, student
motivation, type of web-based activities to be included, the level of interaction
To sum up, as pointed out by Kessler & Bikowski (2010), language learning is promoted by
learner autonomy. Kessler & Bikowski point out that allowing freedom in the way learners
interact develops collaboration in phases which in turn helps language development. Autonomy
is promoted by allowing a variety of ways in which learners can interact – not all learners
interact in the same way as expected by instructors.
Part 3: How activities should be shaped using a Wiki:
Pedagogical principles of constructivism requires Wiki activities to
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Create on line and off-line activities
Provide more feedback on student’s comprehension
to help tutors in identifying “troublesome knowledge” and help them understand
“structured bulletin board” for reflection, meta products, analysis, and feedback,
with ease and fun
engage other students in reviewing and commenting
to facilitate transferable skills, and develop editorial, reviewing, collaborative
skills
“connective writing” with emphasis on criticality, clarity, structure, linkage
supporting different learning style
provide good examples of tasks
Facilitator's Role in Designing the Wiki Space activities:
A survey of the literature on the use of wiki's in education or training highlights the importance
of the role of the facilitator or teacher - this is key to success. In this connection, Cubric (2007)
points out that wiki based activities need to be planned and structured with care in order to
engage students and make a positive impact on their learning experience. For this purpose,
Cubric proposes a "blended learning process framework" that would define:
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the basic learning activities,
location of the activities (in-class, outside of class),
ownership of the activities (individual or group),
guidelines for completing the activities (instructions, marks, etc.),
grouping of related activities in learning tasks,
frequency of the tasks,
responsibilities of the learners' and teacher relative to the activity and tasks, and
technologies used to support the completion of the activities.
Learning activities on the other hand should map to increasing levels of competencies in Bloom's
"cognitive domain" taxonomy (Bloom, 1956). Cubric gives the following activity examples of
mapping:
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add definition of an item to the glossary
provide solution to a practical problem (e.g. develop diagram, informal description of
solution, etc.)
add referenced contribution to a topic
develop coursework
review an article, web-site or standard relative to the topic
review work of colleague
In addition to laying out learning activities in a sequential manner Cubric proposes a "Cyclic
Feedback driven Learning and Teaching Process" managed by the facilitator/teacher. In the
example given by Cubric this process divided the "Blended Learning Process" into 21 hours of
class-based "contact-time" and 129 hours of "independent learning" time into weekly iterations,
an approximate ratio of 1:6, i.e. for every 1 hour of face-to-face lecture time, there would be 6
hours worth of self-study or group work to be done by the students. Each iteration consisted of
weekly cycles and ordered activities within the week:
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Day 1 --> Lecture day. After a lecture is delivered, teacher publishes a "weekly task" on
the module wiki, related to the lecture topic.
Day 2 to Day 5 --> Task time. Students add individual contributions to the module wiki
and update their individual "work record" on the wiki.
Day 6 --> Teacher reviews weekly wiki contributions and provides group feedback. The
feedback is documented on the module wiki and serves as a basis for topic review and
discussion in the subsequent week’s lecture (Day 8).
In the feedback driven learning and teaching process, the weekly "formative assessment" of the
students work feeds the subsequent lecture and task related to the core concepts being taught.
According to Cubric, this motivates students’ engagement in subsequent activities and helps
direct the learning processes.
Such detailed organization of each lesson organized around wiki-work as proposed by Cubric
echoes the work by Notari (2006) who points out that the main goal, working methods,
communication channels, the way in which collaboration takes place and the timetable have to
be carefully formulated. Notari places a lot of emphasis on such planning as even the
‘communication and comment culture’ of the students has to be developed right from the start.
Each participant must agree with the contribution of the other learners. While the commenting on
other work is important from the pedagogical point-of-view, students are not automatically
comfortable with being commented on or commenting on others. This culture among the
students has to be developed step-by-step from the beginning of the course. Students have to be
encouraged and coaxed in a variety of ways to slowly move from their existing non-participatory
attitudes to the ‘Wiki-culture’.
To engage the students in the wiki Notari talks about scripting cycles. A cycle is a possible
sequence of different activities that can be given to the student. The teacher or facilitator has to
be prepared to give inputs as required or propose a specific activity at a given the reaction or
progress of students. Moderation has to be individual as not every learner will accomplish his/her
cycle at the same time. Implementing of scripting cycles would therefore require some sort of
face-to-face interaction, i.e. a format of blended learning where wikis would be used as a
collaboration tool. Cubric on the other hand has been very specific of how the blended learning
environment will be constructed by the teacher/facilitator.
To sum up, the survey of papers reveal that the role of the facilitator is like the instructional
designer and teacher all rolled into one. Given the subject, the face-to-face to wiki blend or time
allocated has to be planned, the learning activities have to be sequentially introduced, student
uptake of wiki work monitored and motivated, subsequent lessons and activities planned
according to feedback on learning achieved in previous blended cycles.
Part 4: Use of Wikis to train teachers:
Wheeler & Wheeler (2009) used wikis with groups of undergrad students attending a degree
course to become educators. The students were drawn from 1st year, 2nd year, 3rd year and
some graduate students. They report an improvement in the academic writing and literacy skills
of the trainee teachers themselves, in particular referencing skills, care in editing, spelling and
respecting intellectual property. So although the population selected were trainee teachers, the
ultimate effect on their teaching practices was not reported. In this context, Lund & Smordal
(2006) point out that for teachers themselves, the complexity of the created learning environment
when using wikis increases dramatically. The teacher has to trigger, stimulate, monitor and guide
online as well as offline activities conducive to learning. This means that teachers not only need
to improve themselves, they also need to be trained to be reflective on how to use wikis to induce
activities conducive to learning. Thorne & Payne (2005) point out that teachers also need to
become competent users of digital information and communication tools, something that is often
overlooked. Dreon & Dietrich (2009) on the other hand report that use of Wikis helped trainee
teachers become more reflective on the designed use of technology rather than just its operation.
In the proposed research, it is important to introduce a reflective component into the training of
ESL teachers. Such teachers work in a very difficult environment. They have to face students
and prevailing teaching methodologies where learners are unable to write proper sentences even
after twelve years of having English as a subject. Before designing of courses, ESL teachers
must go into the background and learning habits of the learners and be able to design language
courses that suit their needs.
References:
Bloom, B. S. (1956). Taxonomie of educational objectives, Handbook I: Cognitive Domain. New
York: David McKay Co Inc.
Bruns, A. & Humphreys, S. (2005). Wikis in teaching and assessment: The M/Cyclopedia.
Proceedings of the 2005 International Symposium on Wikis, San Diego, CA, USA: October 1618, 25-32. Retrieved February 14, 2010 from
http://snurb.info/files/Wikis%20in%20Teaching%20and%20Assessment.pdf.
Cubric, M. (2007). Wiki-based Process Framework for Blended Learning. WikiSym ’07. October
21-23, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Dillenbourg, P. (2002). Over-scripting CSCL: The risks of blending collaborative learning with
instructional design. In Kirschner, P. A. (Ed). Three worlds of CSCL. Can we support CSCL?
(pp.61 – 91). Heerlen, Open University, Netherland. (as cited by Notari, 2006)
Dreon, O. (Jr.) & Dietrich, N. I. (2009). Teaching Assistive Technology through wikis and
embedded video. TechTrends. January/February, Volume 53, Number 1.
Ellis, T.J., Cohen, M.S. (2009). Forums and Wikis and Blogs, Oh My: Building a Foundation for
Social Computing in Education. 39th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference. October
18 – 21, 2009, San Antonio, TX.
Kessler, G. & Bikowski, D. (2010). Developing collaborative autonomous learning abilities in
computer mediated language learning: attention to meaning among students in wiki space.
Computer Assisted Language Learning. Vol. 23, No. 1, February 2010, 41–58. (Article emailed
by author on March 24, 2010)
Kovacic, A, Bubas, G. & Zlatovic, M. (2007). Evaluation of activities with a wiki system in
teaching English as a second language. International Conference “ICT for Language Learning”,
Florence, Italy. Retrieved February 15, 2010, from: www.leonardolets.net/ict/common/download/AndrejaKovacic.pdf
Lund, A. & Smordal, O. (2006). Is there a Space for the Teacher in a Wiki? WikiSym '06. August
21-23, 2006. Odense, Denmark.
Notari, M. (2006). How to use a wiki in education: ‘Wiki based effective constructive learning’.
WikiSym ’06, August 21-23, 2006, Odense, Denmark.
Parker. K.R., Chao, J.T. (2007). Wiki as a teaching tool. Interdisciplinary Journal of Knowledge
and Learning Objects. V 3.
Thorne, S. L. & Payne, J. S. (2005). Evolutionary Trajectories, Internet mediated expression and
language education. CALICO Journal, 22 (3), p-p 371-397.
Wheeler, S. & Whitton, N. (Eds). (2007). Beyond Control: Social Software for the Network
Generation. Research Proceedings of the Association for Learning Technology Conference (ALT
C 2007) held at the University of Nottingham, September 4-6.
Wheeler, S. & Wheeler, D. (2009). Using wikis to promote quality learning in teacher training.
Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 34, Number 1, March 2009, pp. 1-10 (10).