Wiki Space Research Articles

From College to Classroom: Using Virtual Collaborative Inquiry to Support First-Year Teachers With Classroom Management

This study describes an initiative to support first-year teachers and address the following questions: During a year-long, asynchronous support/study group to help first-year teachers with classroom management, what SEL practices would the teachers identify as effective in supporting their classroom management and what SEL competencies would those practices help their elementary and secondary students develop? Data were collected from questionnaires and wiki space discussions. Findings demonstrate that the first-year teachers’ initial conceptions of classroom management became increasingly aligned with the ways in which culturally responsive SEL practices can support classroom management and help elementary and secondary students foster important SEL competencies.

Implementation of digital media in higher education. An experience from the classroom

ABSTRACT
 The digital development of this century is transforming our society and, in parallel, the knowledge society. These new transmission platforms represent a different way of understanding the process of transmitting and receiving knowledge. The Wiki space is increasingly established in virtual higher education classrooms. The objective of this work was to implement the use of the Wiki space in the conventional teaching methodology of university studies and assess the degree of satisfaction of the student and its adequacy in the teaching process. A survey of 22 items was carried out to assess the opinion of 174 students regarding the use and capabilities of the Wiki tool. Our results show that 98.2% rated the use of Wiki space positively. 83.3% of the students were able to promote self-learning, and 73.0% considered this a helpful resource to promote the teaching-learning process. 65.2% considered that the use of ICTs in higher education should be increased. In conclusion, the use of Wiki in the higher education teaching classroom has gained significant acceptance by students who consider it an innovative experience that favors learning and the critical search for information, increasing the motivation for the subject.
 
 ABSTRACT
 The digital development of this century is transforming our society and, in parallel, the knowledge society. These new transmission platforms represent a different way of understanding the process of transmitting and receiving knowledge. The Wiki space is increasingly established in virtual higher education classrooms. The objective of this work was to implement the use of the Wiki space in the conventional teaching methodology of university studies and assess the degree of satisfaction of the student and its adequacy in the teaching process. A survey of 22 items was carried out to assess the opinion of 174 students regarding the use and capabilities of the Wiki tool. Our results show that 98.2% rated the use of Wiki space positively. 83.3% of the students were able to promote self-learning, and 73.0% considered this a helpful resource to promote the teaching-learning process. 65.2% considered that the use of ICTs in higher education should be increased. In conclusion, the use of Wiki in the higher education teaching classroom has gained significant acceptance by students who consider it an innovative experience that favors learning and the critical search for information, increasing the motivation for the subject.

Model Architecture for Subversion Software Repositories System

In the development cycle of any software, software evolution plays an important role. Software Evolution is essential and challenges characteristics in the field of software engineering. Many research studies have concluded that 60-80% of efforts are spent on the evolution and maintenance of the software. Software repositories, for example, version control and bug tracking systems, are vital fragments of numerous software maintenance activities. The version control system is an incremental version tracking system, introduced to avoid unnecessary overwriting of files such as programming code, web pages, and records. It also helps to decrease the confusion affected by duplicate or outdated data. In this proposed research, the SVN repository was maintained and analyzed for msitone.wikispaces.com to minimize the efforts as well as resources for future users. Two semesters' data was taken as the observations for the analysis. The obtained archives were implemented and deployed for postulating the local archives to the online server via the Visual SVN server, allowing remote users to access a repository.The tortoise SVN tool is used as an SVN client to access the repository of Wiki spaces. Analyses were observed with and without implementing the SVN repository. The result shows that implementing the SVN repositories is helpful for the maintenance of the Wiki spaces. It also reduces the cost, time and efforts for their evolution. Whereas without implementing the SVN repositories, Wikis paces were just supposed to be building the house byputting each brick from the start.

Exploring the impact of wiki-mediated collaborative writing on EFL students’ writing performance, writing self-regulation, and writing self-efficacy: a mixed methods study

This study adopted a sequential explanatory mixed-methods approach and followed the Vygotskian social-constructivist theory of learning to explore the impact of wiki-mediated collaborative writing on English as a foreign language (EFL) students’ writing performance, writing self-regulation, and writing self-efficacy. To this aim, two intact classes were selected and randomly assigned to experimental group with 35 EFL students and control group with 32 EFL students. Over the period of one term (almost 12 ninety-minute sessions), the students were aimed to co-construct and improve their writing performance, writing self-regulation, and writing self-efficacy through collaborative writing activities. In the experimental group, the EFL students received wiki-mediated collaborative writing instruction, while in the control group the EFL students experienced face-to-face (non-wiki) collaborative writing instruction. Two timed writing tasks, second language writing self-regulation and writing self-efficacy scales, and an individual semi-structured interview were conducted to collect the required data. Additionally, the types and frequencies of the students’ writing mediations in the wiki-mediated collaborative writing group were identified. The quantitative data were analysed using paired samples t-tests and one-way ANCOVA, and language-related episodes and thematic analyses were applied to analyse the qualitative data. The quantitative data analyses indicated that both wiki-mediated and non-wiki collaborative writing instructions improved the writing performance, writing self-regulation, and writing self-efficacy of the EFL students. The quantitative data analyses also showed that the EFL students in wiki-mediated collaborative writing group outperformed those in the non-wiki collaborative writing group. The qualitative data analyses uncovered a number of peer writing mediations contributing to the EFL students’ writing content (i.e. clarity of the produced message), writing organisation (i.e. sequencing of information), and language use (i.e. grammar, lexicon, & writing mechanics) in the wiki space. The qualitative data analyses further indicated the EFL students’ positive attitudes and perceptions towards wiki-mediated collaborative writing. Pedagogical implications are further discussed.

Wikis in School Libraries

The Web 2.0 thinking and accompanying technologies opened a new direction of development for libraries. Among different Web 2.0 applications wikis are particularly attractive for school librarians. Wikis are read-write web pages that are easy to use, accommodate other Web 2.0 features and are widely applicable for a number of purposes. A Wiki space named LibraryZone is a good example of using wiki in elementary school library. LibraryZone is used for information literacy instructions, conducting a collaborative project, for story writing and as a discussion space.

On line Learning System for Computer Science Departments

In gist, e-learning is pedagogic tool in a computer system or a framework that cement you to impart anywhere and at any time. Today e-learning is particularly convey though the internet, although at past it was delivered using a mixture of computer-based methods like CD-ROM. The development of technology has the geographical gap is bridged by using a way that can imagine you inside the classroom. E-learning show the strength to participate articles in all types of formats such as word, videos, slideshows, and PDFs. Conducting webinars (Online courses) and communicating with professors via chat and message forums it is a choice obtainable to users. This paper presents idea of e-learning system based on Computer Science Department through it listed all the common subjects of these department with a many types of media of teaching that deliver text, audio, image, animation, streaming video and includes discussion forums, Chat rooms, Wiki spaces, Online Messaging, Journals. It can be assessed on an ongoing basis through Online and offline assignments Quizzes Collaborative activities which may make use of some of the interactive communication tools. The Software used in this representation is Moodle software. Moodle is an Open Source web software package in LMS (Learning Management System) for producing internet-based educational and training courses within the web environment .The prepared System is called ELCSD (E-Learning for Computer Science Department).This ELCSD will help users and students improve their grades, better understand concepts from class, and prepare for tests. Most video lessons are 10 minutes or less, so they get the needed information in a fast and fun format.

WIKIs for online documents and textbooks

In this paper we describe ways to use the Wiki-platform as a tool for learning. In our teaching we have used Wiki's as an on-line text-book, for student collaborative work and as the practical course presentation. The choice of optimal software for a WIKI (e.g. MediaWiki, or Wikispaces) depends on the intended use, we describe our experiences with various software in the three cases above. No matter the overall purpose for the use of the Wiki, it has a great functionality that it easily updatable, it is used widely thus the format is known to the students. Besides printed literature more and more teaching material is available in a digital version and accessed either via special software or an internet browser, the same way a wiki is accessed, this automatically integrates the various learning material and gives easy and fast access to relevant information for the students. If you are not a computer expert it is not easy to set up a private web server to host a wiki, however, this can in many cases be avoided by choosing a commercially available Wiki's. We conclude that Wiki's implemented for online educational teaching material help a large part of the students to structure their studies and attain the intended learning outcomes and at least for some students in their collaborative work the learning outcome is above expected for the course.

One wiki, two groups: Dynamic interactions across ESL collaborative writing tasks

With the growing importance of Web 2.0 tools for communication and collaboration, small group writing using one such tool—the wiki—has been increasingly implemented in second language classes. A few researchers have examined group interactions during wiki-based collaborative writing, but little research has explored changes in interaction patterns that occur when students perform multiple wiki writing tasks. This study investigates two ESL groups’ interactions during two collaborative writing tasks that used a Wikispaces site in an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course at an American university. We examined the dynamics of peer interaction across writing tasks for each group by inspecting (1) language functions performed during task negotiation, (2) writing change functions performed during text co-construction, (3) scaffolding strategies, and (4) changes in patterns of interaction across tasks. Data included wiki modules, interviews, and reflection papers. Our analyses show that two ESL groups working on identical tasks in the same wiki space enacted strikingly different patterns of interaction and that those patterns changed within each group across two tasks. We discuss these dynamics with reference to the fluidity of scaffolding occurring within small groups. This study fills a gap in computer-mediated collaborative writing research and also sheds new light on networked writing pedagogy.

Language Learning Context, Learning Style and Iranian EFL Students’ Essay Writing Performance: A Critical Thinking Perspective in a Web. 2.0 Environment

This study attempted to identify and check how language learning context, and learning style in a web 2.0 environment could affect Iranian EFL students’ essay writing performance from a critical thinking perspective. To this end, 90 male and female EFL learners at the upper intermediate level of language proficiency from Payamnoor University selected and were divided into two equal group; first the experimental which received web based teaching method through Wiki space on the internet and second the control group with traditional method of writing in class. The selected material for both group was Researching Second Language Classroom by Sandra Lee M.C. Kay, published in 2008. Both groups received the material during 10 sessions of 120 minutes. The data collected through pretest/ posttest assessment and analyzed t-test procedure by using statistic package of social science (SPSS) demonstrated that experimental group had a better performance in writing than the control group. Confirming the benefits of using web2.0 in writing, the research findings are helpful to improving the writing ability of Iranian English learners.

WIT: Weka interface translator

Advancement in technology turns the big world into one small village. Regardless of what country you are living in, what language you are speaking or understanding, you should be able to benefit from the accumulated knowledge available on the Internet. Unfortunately, this is not the case with English being the de facto language of most programming languages, services, tools and web content. Many users are blocked from using these tools and services because they do not speak or understand English. Multilingual software evolved as a solution to this dilemma. In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of a user-friendly toolkit named Weka interface translator (WIT). It is dedicated to internationalize Weka, which is a collection of machine learning algorithms for data mining tasks widely used by many researchers around the world. WIT is a collaboration project between the Arabic natural language processing team from the University of Jordan and Weka's development team from the University of Waikato. Its main goal is to facilitate the translation process of Weka's interfaces into multi-languages. WIT is downloadable through SourceForge.net and is officially listed on Weka's wiki spaces among its related projects. To experiment with WIT, we present Arabic as a pilot test among many languages that could benefit from this project.

Orientação de Estágio: uma experiência na formação de docentes

Este artigo aborda a utilização das Tecnologias Educacionais em Rede, especialmente o recurso Wiki, na disciplina de Supervisão de Estágio em um Programa Especial de Graduação de Formação de Professores para a Educação Profissional e Tecnológica, em uma universidade pública brasileira. Analisou-se os registros feitos por vinte e nove estudantes e o respectivo orientador, referentes aos planos de Aula e sua implementação como parte do processo da avaliação das competências do planejar e do refletir. As postagens geraram reflexões no espaço Wiki, proporcionando categorias de elementos indicadores para a supervisão dos futuros estágios, na forma de rede de conversação. A possibilidade de acompanhamentos, orientações, avaliações e aprendizagens tornou-se efetivamente um período de construção de experiências, além do espaço acadêmico.

Student Preferences for Use of Online Collaboration Programs for Completion of Translation Projects

Problem statement: Students attending the University of Alcalá come from different locations throughout central Spain. This circumstance can have an impact on their collaboration on group projects. Purpose of study: This paper examines a group of students’ preferences for use of online collaboration programs when working on group translation assignments. It discusses our experience and the students’ reasons for selecting programs. As part of a team project, the students were asked to use a wiki on www.wikispaces.com in the first semester, but they were given the option to use an online collaboration program of their choice in the second semester. They completed a questionnaire about their preferences afterwards. Findings: The majority of the students opted to use www.docs.google.com as opposed to Wiki Spaces. Students might benefit from more training in using wikis but instructors should consider some of the benefits of Google highlighted by the students.

Individual novices and collective experts: Collective scaffolding in wiki-based small group writing

This article reports on a case study that explored the process of wiki-based collaborative writing in a small group of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students at a Chinese university. The study examined the archived logs from the group wiki ‘Discussion’ and ‘History’ modules with a focus on the group members’ scaffolded interaction when co-constructing texts in the wiki space. The analysis revealed that the participants were actively engaged in reciprocal communication in terms of content discussion, social talk, task management, technical communication and language negotiation. They were also found to have scaffolded each other’s writing efforts during co-constructing the product via multiple writing change functions, including addition, deletion, rephrasing, reordering and correction. This study explicated a distinct case of ‘collective scaffolding’ (Donato, 1994) in collaborative writing activities, where group members were simultaneously individual novices and collective experts as they pooled their knowledge and mutually guided each other through problem solving as to writing tasks. This study has important implications for instruction and future research on computer-mediated collaborative writing. 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

TCIA: An information resource to enable open science.

Reusable, publicly available data is a pillar of open science. The Cancer Imaging Archive (TCIA) is an open image archive service supporting cancer research. TCIA collects, de-identifies, curates and manages rich collections of oncology image data. Image data sets have been contributed by 28 institutions and additional image collections are underway. Since June of 2011, more than 2,000 users have registered to search and access data from this freely available resource. TCIA encourages and supports cancer-related open science communities by hosting and managing the image archive, providing project wiki space and searchable metadata repositories. The success of TCIA is measured by the number of active research projects it enables (>40) and the number of scientific publications and presentations that are produced using data from TCIA collections (39).

Strategic Interaction 2.0

The potential of web-based 2.0 technology for teaching and assessing intercultural pragmatics has become an area of focus for language educators (Cohen, 2008; Belz, 2005, 2006). Research has highlighted that second and foreign language learners show significant differences from native speakers in language use, in particular, with the execution and comprehension of certain speech acts (Bardovi-Harlig & Mahan-Taylor, 2003). Without effective instruction, differences in pragmatics are evident in the English of learners regardless of their first language background or language proficiency. In EFL contexts, such as Japan, where learners have limited exposure to native speaker norms, teaching and learning pragmatic competence can be particularly challenging. The authors describe an ongoing curriculum development project in a Japanese university context, where the goal is to design and implement an effective approach to teaching interlanguage pragmatics. Digitally enhanced Strategic Interaction (SI) sequences (Di Pietro, 1987) provide opportunities for learners to engage in realistic interactive situations that are mediated by use of model conversations, an online wiki space, and digital video technologies. The online space provides opportunities for learner reflection, peer assisted feedback, and detailed intervention from the instructor. Data analysis from pre- and post- written discourse completion tasks suggests that learners are able to use language in more context sensitive ways having engaged with the teaching/learning cycle design.

Leveraging the Power of Web 2.0 Tools: A Wiki Platform as a Multimedia Teaching and Learning Environment in Dental Education

This article presents the development and implementation of a wiki-based application for the delivery of educational content in dentistry. The Dental Procedure Education System (DPES) is a new web application that uses SharePoint to combine online collaborative authoring characteristic of wiki spaces with instructional video documentaries. Harnessing the wiki's versatility, DPES offers faculty members an avenue to develop an authoritative source of information for both students, through DPES Pro, and the public at large, through DPES Public. Principles of cognitive theory of multimedia learning, constructivist theory, and collaborative writing were employed in the development of DPES. An authoring protocol, with a clearly defined sequence of steps, was established in order to keep the production of the DPES procedures consistent and predictable. Initial, anecdotal user reports indicate that DPES is well received among dental students and faculty members. Expected outcomes and benefits of DPES use are discussed, and directions for research are proposed.

How artefacts mediate small‐group co‐creation activities in a mobile‐assisted seamless language learning environment?

AbstractThe rich learning resources and contexts learners experience in their everyday life could play important roles in complementing formal learning, but are often neglected by learners and teachers. In this paper, we present an intervention study in ‘Move, Idioms!’, a mobile‐assisted Chinese language learning approach that emphasizes contextualized learner content creation and meaning (sense) making with their daily encounters. In the study, students used smart phones on a 1:1 basis to take photos of the real‐life contexts pertaining to Chinese idioms or conjunctions, made sentences with the idioms/conjunctions, and then posted them onto a wiki space for peer reviews. This paper focuses on analysing students’ on‐campus face‐to‐face collaborative learning process. Inspired by the notions of mediation by artefacts and distributed cognition, we derived a novel visualization approach for descriptive analysis of the small‐group activities to provide a synoptic view of the process of student artefact co‐creation in such collaborative activities. Through our artefact‐oriented analysis, we foreground the significance and the potential impact in fostering learners’ habit of mind and skills in identifying and appropriating in situ resources to mediate their learning activities in any learning space, rather than always being ‘dictated’ by the resources that the teacher provides with fixed roles to play.

Developing collaborative autonomous learning abilities in computer mediated language learning: attention to meaning among students in wiki space

This study reports on attention to meaning among 40 NNS pre-service EFL teachers as they collaboratively constructed a wiki in a 16-week online course. Focus is placed upon the nature of individual and group behavior when attending to meaning in a long-term wiki-based collaborative activity as well as the students' collaborative autonomous language learning abilities. Phases of group collaboration as well as individual language acts were analyzed. Student interaction and language use appear to benefit from flexible learning environments although student use of these spaces may not be consistent with instructor expectations. More important than the quality of the final wiki is the process students engage in as they write collaboratively. The paper concludes with a proposed framework for CALL research and practice.

Using wikis to promote quality learning in teacher training

This paper discusses writing as a social practice and speculates on how wikis might be used to promote higher quality academic writing and support collaborative learning. This study of undergraduate teacher trainees’ online learning activities focuses on how shared spaces – wikis – might be used to communicate ideas and generate course‐specific content. The study also explored how students, through such activities, were able to improve their academic writing skills and engage more critically in learning. Data captured from student discussion boards and a post‐module email questionnaire (n = 35) were used to map student perceptions of the usefulness of wikis in support of their academic studies. The data indicate that most students raised their skill level in writing directly to the publicly viewable wiki space, in sharp contrast to the more informal content they posted on the discussion boards. The scope of collaborative writing was limited due to students’ reluctance to edit each others’ work, but students appreciated the shared environment as a means of discussing their work and the content of the course. Students reported that their academic writing skills had improved through their formal participation in the wiki.

Using WebCT, Wiki Spaces, and ePortfolios for Teaching and Building Information Literacy Skills

ABSTRACT Librarians, as service providers, are always looking for innovative ways of using technology for designing and improving information systems that allow teaching and building of information literacy skills. Online learning and teaching tools offer teacher librarians undreamed of opportunities to enhance face-to-face information literacy instruction. This paper describes the librarian's research, discoveries, and experience with using WebCT Campus Edition and Vista, ePortfolios, and Wikis to deliver online information literacy instruction as part of fully-online, Web-enhanced, or hybrid courses. Models of librarian/faculty partnership and collaboration are also illustrated.