Using Wikis for Environmental Education and Awareness of Primary and Secondary Education Students in Greece

Environmental education (EE) institutions worldwide strive to promote awareness and learning related to the protection of the environment and sustainability issues. In this effort, they take stock of the capabilities of online and social media. This paper briefly overviews characteristic examples for the use of social media for environmental education, as well as basic ideas that underpin the use of wikis in particular in education and learning, and discusses the ways in which wikis can be used, within environmental education programs, for raising environmental awareness of primary and secondary education students. This discussion is based on a research project employing wikis and conducted during 2011-2012 in Athens, Greece. The research questions guiding this project, the design and implementation choices of the research, the difficulties encountered and the revisions decided, as well as the research results and findings, together with proposals for further research work, constitute the contents of the paper.