This week we have been diving into the world of wikis and their role in collective intelligence. Collective intelligence is based on the theory of social constructivism which we discussed last week and a great example of an online version of collective intelligence is Wikipedia. Wikipedia is a website where anyone can add or change information about almost topic. The premise of this site is to encourage users to add and change information by consistently building onto one another’s ideas. The theory is that this information would not be attained if it wasn’t for the collective thoughts and aptitudes of all contributing users. Although this idea is innovative and great by theory there is one major downfall, not all contributions are factual, leading to scepticism when referencing this site.
There are many advantages of Wikipedia despite it being banned in schools and Universities. I particularly liked the UTUBE video clip from this week’s readings (http://henryjenkins.org/2010/02/_children_and_young_people.html) where Henry Jenkins states, “students are learning more outside of school these day then in”. Programs like Facebook, Myspace Wikipedia etc are discouraged and banned from use inside schools however these are the programs used by the young generation of digital natives to seek out new content and socialise with people. Henry Jenkins states ‘the internet is based on collective intelligence’. Students should be encouraged to access these forums to continually discover, debate and build on their prior knowledge.
Exposing students to Wikipedia is a lesson in itself. Not only does it give students a starting point for locating information but it also teaches students about ‘information literacy’. In the article From Blogs to Bombs: The future of digital technologies in education, Mark Pegrum describes information literacy as the skills used to evaluate the origins, authorship, history, accuracy, objectivity, completeness, currency and relevance of digital documents and to compare and cross reference them with other digital sources. Information literacy is an essential tool that all internet users need to poses.
Overall I think teachers a wary of using wikis such as Wikipedia to gain information but it is important to expose students to these sites not only to access and build information but to teach students to be critical of the internet. I believe that teachers are uneducated when it comes to technology and would prefer to shy away from it rather than embrace it (faults and all). I personally think setting up a Wiki in a classroom setting would be a create way of running a social constructivism class where students can build onto one another’s ideas, give feedback to each other and discuss topics in more depth. However saying this, teacher monitoring would have to occur in all stages to ensure students stayed on track and no cyber bullying occurred.
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Awestruck.
ReplyDeleteHey, you just wrote a great piece - virtual high 5. Excellent extract from Pegrum - could you link it?
Julie.
Michelle, you're absolutely right - there's a major teacher training issue here. It's all very well to say that technology should be used in schools, but teachers need lots of preparation to become comfortable enough to begin working with it. They also need a shift of mindset, so that they come to see themselves as pedagogical experts who can work in partnership with students who may (some of the time at least) have greater technological expertise.
ReplyDeletePersonally I like the idea of using technology for everyday teaching of any subject. However i feel some schools still dont have the facilities to do this. The prac school I went to had no computer in their classroom and went to the library for a 'computer lesson'(This was a western suburb school). I never did a lesson using computers during prac as it was too much hassle not becasue i was shying away from technology. Possibly this is also a reason for teachers not really embracing technology?!
ReplyDeleteYes, I think having no computers in the classroom is very limiting. Why take the entire class to the computer lab to write a reflection on their blog, when you could simply get them to take out their diaries from their desk and write in them immediately? More computers in the classroom would not only be extremely convenient, it would help them to become normal everyday tools. By isolating computers in a big computer lab on the other side of the school, you are over-emphasising their importance, perhaps scaring digital immigrants, and ultimately hindering learning.
ReplyDeleteGood point, Jenny - we might all be more hesitant to use pens if we had to go to a special pen lab once a week to do so!
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