Techtalk: Wikis and Collaborative Knowledge Construction.

In the last column, we began discussing Web 2.0 In this column, we'll review participatory, social networking software called We'll define wikis, discuss their use in classrooms, explore benefits provided for collaborative knowledge construction, and explain five types of with applications to developmental education (DE).What is a Wiki?Wikis are a variety of dynamic Web pages that can be edited using Web browsers (Wikipedia Foundation Inc. [WFI], 2008a). Although the best example of a wiki is Wikipedia, others include MySpace or YouTube discussed in our last column. Wikis allow a group to collaboratively construct a document online by subscribing and then editing multimedia using simple text editors. Tags, RSS (Real Simple Syndication), feeds, and full-page editing are often available. If unwanted changes occur, a moderator can easily launch a previous version from a catalog. For more information, view Wikis in Plain English (LeFever & LeFever, 2007).Examples of WikisWikis have been used in a variety of assignments, and examples are generally accessible after joining a wiki site and searching for educational applications. For example, a quick search on the topic wikis in college in WikiSpaces (2008) at the time of this writing found 87 education wikis. Applications of DE can be found at the Online Teaching and Learning Wiki site created by Julie Hutchin's project for TIDE in 2006 (Hutchin, 2008) or the Developmental Education Wiki site created by Caverly (2008).Researchers have consistently documented the value of publishing students' collaborative writing in terms of increased motivation, positive attitudes, and greater achievement (Ajjan & Hartshorne, 2008). Newer research is suggesting writing using Web 2.0 technology changes how students construct meaning (Writing in Digital Environments [WIDE] Research Center, 2008).Coconstructing Meaning with a WikiA wiki blurs the line between the reader and the writer. Both are encouraged to coconstruct knowledge through reading and editing text (in the broad sense of print, graphic, audio, and video), adding tags to classify meaning, and participating in a learning community where the group coconstructs knowledge and takes ownership of a message (Cummings, 2008). Wikis thus provide a social constructivist, epistemological stance (Vygotsky, 1978) allowing knowledge to be collaboratively constructed among students (Resta & Laferridere, 2007). Truth is relativistic, variable, and determined by the group (Garfinkel, 2008). Through the wisdom of the (Liotta, 2008) and students discussing, writing, and sharing combined knowledge and perceptions of reality, an understanding (i.e., truth) is determined.Wikipedia (WFI, 2008b) builds upon this phenomenon in their creation of an online, wild-based encyclopedia. It seemingly is the first source students seek out for new information. Still, Wikipedia does not purport to present the truth about what is known about a given topic as documented by experts. Rather, it presents what the crowd thinks is the truth, using a different epistemological set of standards including three policy thresholds for inclusion into its wiki (WFI, 2008c): (a) verifiability policy, where justification that the information is published is the criteria for acceptance, not experts' evidence; (b) original research policy, where no original thought is accepted; and (c) neutral point of view policy, where all points of view are presented regardless of validity. These epistemological standards are counter to expectations of a postsecondary education.Recent research has compared Wikipedia to more traditional sources. Chesney (2006) compared 55 academics reading either Encyclopaedia Britannica entries or Wikipedia entries and found generally no difference in their credibility, suggesting the accuracy of Wikipedia was high. However, Rector (2008) compared nine Wikipedia entries to Encyclopaedia Britannica, The Dictionary of American History, and American National Biography Online. …