Wikis and research
Essay examines using wiki as part of British literature course
9:46 a.m., April 11, 2011--Christopher Penna, associate professor in the Department of English at the University of Delaware, has had his essay, “Vision and Revision: Using Wikis to Produce and Present Undergraduate Research,” published by the Learning Technology Consortium on its Essays on Teaching with Technology website. This essay will be bundled into an upcoming freely available book on emerging faculty practices.
The Learning Technology Consortium is a partnership of nine institutions (including the University of Delaware) that have strong technology and faculty support programs and are interested in collaborating on teaching and learning with technology. According to the LTC’s website, Essays on Teaching with Technology “presents a collection of peer-reviewed essays by individuals who have integrated technology into university courses. The writing is practically oriented, focusing on ways in which technology has helped students learn….”
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Penna established the British Literature wiki in 2007 to combine the “traditional” goals of a survey course in literature with [his] interest in emerging technologies.” The wiki has grown to over 200 multimedia pages on a variety of topics and literary reviews relating to various periods of British literature and receives 200-400 visits a day.
According to Penna, “The expectation for the wiki pages was that students were to produce high-quality materials from which other undergraduates studying this period could benefit. These entries would be more than factual articles and include the students’ research-based interpretative analyses.” The entries also include public-domain images and original images and videos produced by the students.
The majority of Penna’s students have reacted favorably to the wiki project, both from the satisfaction of seeing their work published and because of the greater understanding of British literature they have gained. Students are also pleased that their work will provide valuable insight for future students and for others reading the wiki.
According to Mathieu Plourde, IT Client Support & Services, “The publication of faculty stories like this one is crucial to the adoption of new tools and techniques that will enhance the learning experience of our students. Chris’ use of freely available web 2.0 tools is a good example of how making your class content openly available can have an impact that reaches beyond our institutional walls.”
If you are interested in the use of open educational resources, electronic textbooks, web 2.0 tools, or social media for teaching and learning, you are encouraged to follow and contribute to a new blog exploring those practices at UD and beyond.