The use of wiki as a learning tool by pre-service Primary Education

teachers: a pre-placement school study

Luis González Rodero

Faculty of Education

University of Salamanca

Index

1. Introduction

2. Development of the project

3. Evaluation of the project: results

4. Discussion

Track 10. Teacher Education research and ICT

Introduction (I)

• Educational processes in today’s society, must aim at developing capability and skills that help students develop their competence to learn how to learn, become digital citizens

• The university should provide students experiences that enable them to acquire key skills that will be critical in their teaching career and social performance

• University students are expected to work following academic standards, becoming confident with virtual university tools, making efficient use of resources provided by e-learning platforms.

Introduction (II)

• Students need to access information, analyze, highlight and build their own

arguments.

• The challenge for university students connects with this idea of handling

information, developing critical thinking skills while using powerful digital tools

available, and all this through on-line collaborative work with fellow students

• The e-learning platform at the University of Salamanca, Studium, supported by

Moodle, offers the possibility to use Wiki

• Wiki facilitate that students can work on research projects on-line

Introduction (III)

• Wikis help students create and share knowledge easily.

• One visitor, who is outside the group's licensed members, will have any possibility to update information.

• For group members sharing a wiki, any updating is automatically stored by the tool, which makes of this collaborative tool a powerful learning device for university students

• Wiki allows students to work online in real time, far from asynchronous situations, which gives them the possibility to work at any moment and anywhere.

Introduction (IV)

• The use of ICT tools has become a key competence in any kind of sector these days.

• The university has to implement them to prepare students for their personal and professional challenge.

• Achieving high standards in digital competence is a priority today’s at social, economic, political or cultural domains, and come to terms with how fast information turns into knowledge.

• As far as higher education is concerned, the last decade has seen an important development in the integration of ICT within management processes, students’ enrollment and academic scaffolding, networking and communication tools.

Introduction (V)

• Studium (Official name for the University of Salamanca Moodle platform) has evolved immensely in the past decade.

• Last academic year, a new platform based on Moodle 2.6 was set up, all faculty members and students being migrated from the old Moodle 1.9 version into the new one.

• Students can get access to Studium from different devices (computers, laptops, tablets, mobile phones), and they can do many things with their tools

Main page

Course 2014 - 2015

Introduction (VI)

• Most degrees at the University of Salamanca are offered on a face-to-face basis, students having permanent on site lessons.

• New teaching processes are becoming common, and they require the use of the platform LMS, not only as repository for content of subjects but also to promote tasks that demand collaborative work and more efficient training for students.

• Moodle offers a wide range of tools to work collaboratively: Wikis, Forum and other tools which have different levels of complexity as for instance the Workshop tool. A Wiki is a simple tool, similar to Word processor but more easy-

Moodle 2.6 Activities

2.- Development of the project (I)

• For the implementation of this project we used publications, references on how to work in innovative schools, which have been collected by Telefonica Foundation, especially those concerning Spanish schools, but also some dealing with experiences in European schools.

• We analyze the cases of Innovative schools, innovative methodologies, organizational changes, development of project work

• Another important factor is the relationship of the school with the families and the educational community

Make ready yourSchool for theDigital Society. Keys to join the change

2.- Development of the project (II)

1. Students got organized in groups of 4 –5, decided on a school of their interest where they would carry out the study. They used the Forum of Studium

2. Once groups has been organized and school assigned, wikis were created in Studium to start collaborative work

3. A scheme of work was handed out to students, uploading it to their wikis, to share and decide on actions to carry out.

4. A letter for the Heads of the schools involved was provided to students, so that they got in contact to establish a program of visits to the school

2.- Development of the project (III)

5. Students visited schools and studied their academic organization, infrastructures, educational proposal, as well as educational projects of interest

6. Each member of the group uploaded a final report on the wiki, whit the coordination between the group members

7. Having completed the report, it was edited following a standardized format

8. The final results from each group were orally presented to the other groups, as a way to discuss on the background knowledge they already had about the schools

Rural School

Urban School

2.- Development of the project (IV)

List of centers and groups. Wikis development work

2.- Development of the project (V)

Wiki >> Team 15 >> Sancho II School (Zamora)

3.- Evaluation of the project: results(I)

• The students’ final assessment of the tool used and the process followed were quite positive, and they praised the benefits of using wiki as a tool for collaborative work

• The final data for evaluation of the project come from those provided by students in tutorials, oral presentations while and after finishing the project, interviews with group members and students’ log books.

• All this evidence provides qualitative data for final evaluation of the project.

• The use of wiki as a tool for collaborative work, at degree for Primary Education Teachers, did not present any implementation obstacles; it was a useful tool to develop this work

3.- Evaluation of the project: results(II)

• Students have found some technical problems in working with wikis: Moodle use an HTML editor that should not pose any technical difficulties to insert pictures; however, and taking into account the high percentage of students who were unable to achieve it.

• This is an situation of blended learning: most students involved in the project attend school on a regular basis and share lessons and leisure time on site. They have also shared and exchanged ideas for the project while on campus, instead of using wiki as a working tool.

• Students preferred discussing all the issues in face-to-face meetings.

3.- Evaluation of the project: results(III)

• About seven per cent of group membersabandoned and did not complete the tasks, which had to be assumed by the othermembers of the group, reorganizing and adding extra work.

• Most groups felt satisfied with final results, although some groups complained abouthow intensive that month had been, especially the fourth week.

• At the end of the process of this project, which involved the use of wiki; latertransferring results into a word processor, all technical problems identified by studentswere overcome.

4.- Discussion

• In this academic year, I have planned a similar project to students, and I intend to use quantitative data obtainedthrough questionnaires, so that more accurate data thanthe ones collected from interviews and observation(qualitative methods).

• Teachers must think of incorporating these new virtual environment tools in their teaching practice to supportcollaborative work with their fellow teachers.

• Collaborative work using e-learning platforms is helpfulfor educators developing academic and managementtasks with their students

• With this type of project students can work withcolleagues in a campus located in other area, using thetools offered by the university e-learning platform: Wikis, videoconferencing,…

The use of wiki as a learning tool by pre-service Primary Education

teachers: a pre-placement school study

Luis González Rodero

University of Salamanca

Thanks for yourattention!