Wikis: Pros and Cons for Adult Learners.

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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 you’d like - there are a set of rules for where content can be displayed on the page. For the learner, there may be little impact; however, for the person creating the page, it can be frustrating if you had a certain layout in mind. You just have to be more creative with where you want objects placed. West & West (2009) also mirror my experience with wiki limitions in that minimal management capabilities are available in creating a page. Additionally, West & West (2009) report several cons of wikis, such as the lowered level of security (although you can make the wiki public or private) as well as a limitation on the number of pages can be created, or members that can follow the wiki. King & Cox (2011) further report the limitations of wikis in educational settings, which allow the ability of the wiki to be edited by anyone if your page is not password protected. This can lead to inappropriate comments, or addition of irrelevant content/removal of relevant content. Furthermore, people who visit the page, but do not leave comments, created concern for students to post information publicly as they did not know who was visiting their page. Personally, I do not have the same sentiment about online publishing; I am not worried about what I write and who can view it. I feel safe creating posts with topics that discuss education and the adult learner; on the other hand, if I was posting on a highly controversial subject, that may be when I create a pseudonym to write under. One other concern that King & Cox (2011) broach is that “a wiki represents the collective perspective of the group that uses it, and therefore it has a collective bias” (p. 123).
Understanding the strengths and limitations of Wikis can help the teacher or student/adult learner determine which technology resource will create the best learning environment in the classroom. There are many opportunities to create worthwhile content, and weighing the pros and cons of each resource will allow for a positive technological experience.


References
King, K. & Cox, T. (2011). The professor’s guide to taming technology. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.  ISBN: 9781617353338   e-book ISBN: 9781617353352
West, J. and West, M. (2009). Using Wikis for online collaboration: The power of the read-write Web.  San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.  ISBN: 9780470343333

Comments

  1. Les LauberMarch 31, 2019 at 11:35 AM

    Nice summary. Having limited wiki experience myself, I was limited in my thinking. One of the things I walked away from the West & West text with was the concept that wikis are not one-size-fits-all. Free wikis, subscription wikis, hosted wikis, limited content wikis.... The Wikiverse is more complex than I imagined. Keep in mind that this text was published almost ten years ago, and their information was probably 18-36 months old to allow for the writing and publishing schedules....

    I also underlined the sentence from Lari's chapter in the King & Cox text. The one about advantages of practicality, politics, and timeliness. Of those, the benefits of timeliness and up-to-the-moment data is the most interesting to me on a personal level.

    Best

    --Les

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SaraApril 1, 2019 at 4:22 PM

      Hi Les,

      Thanks for your comments. I, too, noticed the age of the book and how it is likely that much of the basic information is still relevant, but when diving into more specifics on the technology/Wiki, information may be outdated. I did learn a lot from both texts about the Wikis, so it was valuable information!

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  2. UnknownApril 2, 2019 at 5:56 PM

    Hi Sara,

    Very concise, easy read about wikis, good job! Enjoyed the thread between you and Les. I, too, have wondered about the literature reviews and many great articles are up to 10 years old. It has me thinking about the relevancy in today's academic environment. I have never created a wiki so I'm sure there is still valid points that are stated or not as evident today, if the point was a con many years ago!

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    Replies
    1. SaraApril 3, 2019 at 12:09 PM

      Thank you for your comments and for stopping by!

      Delete
  3. C SchulApril 5, 2019 at 5:00 PM

    Hi Sara,
    I agree that wikis are a collaborative tool which can be used for several purposes in the adult education arena journaling, portfolios, research coordination, curricular and cross-disciplinary purposes, coordinate, and organize participants notes from conferences (Higdon, 2015 as cited in King & Cox, 2011). When I created my first wiki, for adult learning class, I experienced similar formatting issues and frustrations that you mentioned. Another con I would like to address is legal, ethical issues which are addressed with copyright infringement of collaborative groups. Trying to figure out who legally has access to the text that has been penned by the collaborative group. Botterbush and Parker (2008) note there are three types of license which provide users with free access to the text: CopyLeft, Creative Commons, and Public Domain (p. 7).

    References

    Botterbusch, H. R., & Parker, P. (2008). Copyright and collaborative spaces: Open licensing and wikis. TechTrends: Linking Research and Practice to Improve Learning, 52(1), 7-9. doi:http://dx.doi.org.er.lib.k-state.edu/10.1007/s11528-008-0101-9

    Higdon, J (2005, November 15). Teaching, learning, and other uses for wikis in academia. Campus Technology. Retrieved June 5, 2009 from http://campustechnology.com/articles/2005/11/teaching-learning-and-other-uses-for-wikis-in-academia.aspx?sc=-lang=eng As cited in King, K. P. & Cox, T. D. (2011). The professor’s guide to taming technology: Leveraging digital media, web 2.0, and more for learning. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, Inc.


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SaraApril 7, 2019 at 1:31 PM

      Hi Colleen,
      That is a really interesting point that I had not thought of: 'Trying to figure out who legally has access to the text that has been penned by the collaborative group.' I can see that could pose challenges with how the information is shared and credited to. Thanks for sharing the Botterbush and Parker (2008) reference.

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  4. Vee WilliamsApril 6, 2019 at 1:36 PM

    Hi Sara,

    I read with interest your blog on Wikis. There are two points on Wikis that really stuck out for me which I feel I might have glossed over when thinking about them. First you spoke of them providing up-to-date content. I believe this can be true, but since Wiki information is not always dated, I am not sure how a person can always tell if this true. I have looked for information on a topic and seen so many website pages that have not been updated in years if the comments made on them are any proof. And the second point is on the cons. I never thought about someone deleting/editing important information (without discussion) that I had added. Luckily, this has never happened on any of the education projects I have worked on.

    You and Les really had a great point on the age of the texts we have and even the articles. Most of what I found was written around the same time period between 2009 and 2014. I, personally, have found Wikis a relevant tool in adult education, I wonder why I have not found a lot more current information. Thank you for making me think a little more!

    Vee

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    Replies
    1. SaraApril 7, 2019 at 1:36 PM

      Hi Vee - thanks for your post. I see where you are coming from with the content not actually being up to date; I have run into this many times myself. Maybe I can clarify my pro is that wikis CAN provide the most current information IF the owners keep it up to date. Thanks for making me rethink my perspective!!

      Delete
  5. KLM@KSUApril 6, 2019 at 2:31 PM

    Sara, I enjoyed reading your perspective on wiki use in the classroom, and agreed with much of what you shared. I think your point about wiki having rules for content placement is particularly important for adult learners. The next generation of learners are digital natives but adults learning in today's environment are not. The learning curve can be steep and knowing that building a wiki is a requirement might be enough pressure to prevent someone from engaging in a course. This will be an interesting topic to follow as the workforce and adult learning population continues to age.

    I share your same perspective on silent visitors to blogs/wikis - I myself am one and will read and enjoy content without commenting more often than not. It's the responsibility of the site owner to be cognizant of sensitive posts in an open, online forum and adjust privacy settings as needed. I also think it's the obligation of the educator to make learners aware of the risks - especially students who are new to the landscape.

    Thanks for sharing!

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    Replies
    1. SaraApril 7, 2019 at 1:34 PM

      Hi KLM - thanks for your comments. I agree that it is the obligation of the educator to make learners aware of the risks. In our current course, I appreciated the professor writing the disclaimer 'HELP PROTECT YOUR FELLOW CLASSMATE'S IDENTITY! If your classmates are using pseudonyms on their blogs rather than their real names, please use their pseudonyms when commenting on their blogs. THANKS!' This was a good privacy reminder.

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