Digital Collaborative Literacy: Using Wikis to Promote Social Learning and Literacy Development

Abstract

In This We Believe: Keys Educating Young Adolescents, National Middle School Association (2010) identifies the goals of developing in young adolescents the interpersonal and social skills necessary to learn, work and play with others harmoniously and confidently (p. 11); using digital tools explore, communicate and collaborate with the world (p. 12); and developing active citizenship and respect for the community, both inside and outside the classroom. It is these ends that we revisit the concept of collaborative literacy (Wood, Roser, & Martinez, 2001), which fosters the social skills of cooperation, respect, and sharing by combining group interaction and the study of literature. Collaborative literacy is a multidimensional idea in which students engage in group activities (reading, writing, discussion, and literary analysis) contemplate the themes of working together and getting along. Through collaborative literacy, students develop an awareness of and deepen their connection life's most important lessons. Consequently, teachers select books that have as their primary message the need work together, get along, and cooperate achieve a desired goal. In previous experiences with classrooms and teachers, Wood et al. (2001) used the traditional book club model (Daniels, 1994; McMahon, Raphael, Goatley, & Pardo, 1997) and asked students read books with the common theme of working together and getting along. After ample modeling from the teacher, the student groups engaged in book talks discuss how the lessons learned by the characters in the stories could be applied other contexts such as the classroom, their school, their homes and communities, and society as a whole. Yet, in this era of 21st century technologies, we cannot ignore the powerful influences of recent digital literacies redefining what it means be a reader and writer (Coiro, 2009; Leu, Kinzer, Coiro, & Cammack, 2004; O'Brien & Dubbels, 2009). Opportunities for collaborative literacy have expanded as many teachers have tapped into the possibilities of shared writing spaces by integrating wikis and other online tools into their instruction. Traditional group activities such as literature circles, learning clubs, book clubs, and reciprocal teaching have gone virtual with students blogging, texting, and chatting synchronously and asynchronously as they share their thinking and learning with an online community of learners (Casey, 2009; Leu et al., 2004; O'Brien & Scharber, 2008; Scharber, 2009). Thus, in this column, we discuss the possibilities for using online book clubs build digital collaborative literacy experiences for students. Figure 1 illustrates how online book club discussions can extend students' thinking and learning beyond the text and help them make connections themes in their personal lives, their homes, classrooms and communities, and the world. Students work in groups reading literature about getting along and then discuss within digital settings how essential this cooperation is in their daily lives. Digital collaborative literacy and wikis Digital collaborative literacy is based on the same principles of book clubs, as originally outlined by McMahon, et al. (1997), in which students form small reading groups based on self-selected texts. Within these groups, peers meet regularly discuss the texts based on notes generated by students. The groups proceed collaboratively, with students assigned various job roles within their groups. In this framework, book clubs are student-centered, choice-centered, structured for independence, flexible, and fluid. Instead of providing the face-to-face contact fostered in traditional book clubs, digital collaborative literacy allows students extend their interactions into digital spaces using wikis. The wiki enhances literature circle groups and helps students see the connections among various texts and the lessons be learned from them. …