Wikis: The Pros & Cons for Adult Learners

With the rise of social networking in the 21^st Century, people of all generations have become more tech savvy. So many people stay connected with family and friends and even find jobs through social networking sites. Why not bring the social aspect into learning? People learn from one another and encourage each other to broaden thoughts, find deeper meaning and even change the way we think.

Social learning can be difficult when adult learners are also online learners. It is very difficult to obtain the social, collaborative aspect of learning when class members all live in different zip codes. One way this has become possible is through collaborative learning spaces- wikis.

There are many pros to using wikis in adult education. As noted by King & Cox (2011), Wikis can be used in many different ways.

1. student journaling                                                                        
2. personal portfolios
3. collaborative knowledge- group work & projects
4. research coordination & collaboration
5. curricular & cross-disciplinary coordination
6. coordinate & organize academic conferences

      Other positives to using wikis are that they require limited technical skills, so students will be able to focus on collaboration with out too many technical difficulties (King & Cox 2011). If technical issues arise, many wikis provide technical support for users. There are also many free wiki sites. So anyone can create their own wiki without subscribing to a wiki site. 

In adult distance education courses, wikis are primarily 

used for research collaboration and group projects.

 

Wikis are easy to create, change and track. Although some students may be worried about altering someone else’s work during the wiki process but there really is no need to worry. The term WIKI  actually comes from the Hawaiian word wikiwiki, which means change quickly (King & Cox 2011). It is very fast and easy to edit and restore a wiki. 

As stated in King & Cox (2011), when adults are presented with self-directed learning opportunities, the greater their chances of learning the information. Creating a wiki is a self-directed learning opportunity where individuals not only take control of their learning, but can add information to the web environment in which they interact with other interested members (Hazari, North, Moreland, 2009).

One final pro for adult learners using wikis is that work created can be used later for job interviews and electronic portfolios.

Of course, where there are positives there are always a few negatives. Some cons that I feel can be overcome are students may be unsure of the technology/ wiki formatting and students may be unsure of their role in the group because they have not previously worked with the group members before (Hazari, North, Moreland, 2009). After creating several wikis and playing around in the “sandbox” or “playground” that the instructor has provided, students should gain confidence in their abilities. Other students in the collaborative group may have more experience in formatting and could possibly take over that role. As students start to interact with their group mates via Skype, Vale, email etc… they should become more familiar with one another.

One con that cannot be avoided are wikis do not have much security. If not password protected, anyone can post irrelevant, incorrect, or inappropriate information (King & Cox 2011). If students use a free wiki site, there are always advertisements that cannot be removed.

If adult learners can see past a few minor issues, then I feel that wikis are a valuable tool for collaboration and collective thinking. They are easy to use and provide a way for students to become active contributors and content producers (Hazari, North, Moreland 2009) who are in control of their learning.


For more information the link below will take you to a great article about how teachers can use blogs and wikis.
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning-with-Blogs-and-Wikis.aspx

West, J., & West, M. (2009). Using wikis for online collaboration. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

King, K., & Cox, T. (2011). The professor’s guide to taming technology. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

Harzi, S., North,A., Moreland,D. (2009). Investigating pedagogical value of wiki technology. Journal of information systems education. 20(2). 187-198.Retrieved from: http://search.proquest.com.er.lib.k-state.edu/docview/200157232?accountid=11789.