Adult Learning and Educa-Schoen

Wikis used in the classroom can enrich the educational experience for adult learners. Wikis are a great learning tool due to their collaborative nature. There can be one author or many (Wikipedia for example). Some other pros of wikis are outlined by West & West (2009); they can be inexpensive or free, they are quick to start-up, easy to monitor and there is minimal technical experience required to create a basic wiki. King & Cox (2011) outline three major types of advantages to using wikis: “(1) practical, as they allow for community collaboration; (2) political, as they offer freedom of participation; and (3) timely, as they can provide the most up-to-date content” (p. 126). On the other hand, one of the cons to hosting a wiki for adult learning, from my own personal experience, is creating the Wiki template itself. The functionality of the wiki template is not the same as a personal webpage - you cannot manipulate the content to have an item or text box placed wherever...

Weblogs (blogs) and discussion board activities are similar in nature, but each have their own unique properties. First, the similarities. Discussion boards and blogs are discussions intending to engage readers; whether that be through eliciting a discussion response or engagement through a blog story (that may include pictures or hyperlinks) shared with others. Farmer (2004) discussed the impact that non-face to face communication has on a learner, “a contribution can be viewed and read by one person, the whole group or nobody and because how a writer understands the intended audience of their work dramatically impacts on their entire approach to the task of writing, and this uncertainty impacts considerably on the ability of the individual to project themselves” (p. 277). The uncertainty of how to project oneself, and the level of comfort one feels when sharing in an online format can vary greatly between students. It should be noted that students who feel comfortable s...