Wikifying Knowledge
This fall our class started a wiki to use as a space to collect our knowledge about ancient history. In Manitoba, grade eight social studies revolves around the study of ancient societies and we set up a wiki to use as a collective knowledge space. This week, as school returns, we are in the depths of a study of ancient Egypt.
These units are something that I have long struggled with. This curricula seems to revolve around the simple collection of ideas and information. The province states that this curricula is not meant to be a study of historical dates, it is meant to be a study of the ways that people lived, how they met their basic needs, and how their societies were the precursors of our own. I have tried to change the emphasis of this course so that it does not simply revolve around collecting massive amounts of information from the web, something the designers of this document never had in mind. In my class we look at issues surrounding the exercise of power in societies, meeting basic needs, contributions to modern society, and similarities and differences between various societies. The idea being that I am trying to meet provincial requirements as well as moving the curricula towards becoming something that allows students to pursue a higher - level set of information, comprehension, and analysis skills.
As we return to our study of Egypt this week, our wiki will become an active space again. Over the previous unit, as students used this tool for the first time, we learned a great deal about collecting and shaping knowledge. Students learned that they had to be active researchers, collectors, and designers of knowledge. They were interested in the fact that something written by one of their classmates could be added to, edited, and re - shaped by others. This was a new revelation for many of them. Starting to use this tool again this week, it first of all will be interesting to see if the kids still retain this understanding of using a wiki as a learning tool.
I've also been giving some thought to the idea of how we have been using this wiki. It has basically been used as an information funnel. We collect information from other sources, whether they be electronic, video, from research books, etc. and then post the information that we need onto the wiki forming our own version of a digital textbook. But there is no original information that goes in to this space, it all comes from other spaces. So the question rises: is there any reason to use a wiki if we are using it only to collect information? Is it any different from taking regular notes on paper?
I do believe there are some basic differences. First of all, using a wiki allows us to access the knowledge we have collected no matter whether we are at school or at home, expanding the size of our learning space and the time in which it can happen. Second of all, our wiki can have a larger outside audience, being posted online. Like our math videos, they are accessible by other people. As well, because the wiki is a space that anyone in our classroom can contribute to, it becomes much more then a single set of notes, it becomes an evolving, communal collection of our knowledge and understanding that grows in depth as our understanding does.
Using a wiki in this way also forces students to determine the importance and validity of information. Over the last unit of study, students were forced several times to confront the fact that they had posted information online that was not completely correct. They were forced to revise what they had written and re - think their understandings. Sorting, validating, and exposing overwhelming amounts of information is a skill that simply cannot be demonstrated or practiced using text that is not electronic.
So although using a wiki to collect information can seem to be simply taking electronic notes, it can be a lot more.
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