User talk:Klseifert

Hello Kelvin and welcome :)

Regarding this:

I am especially interested in ways of making Wiki technologies become more truly collaborative, and not simply an alternative to a free posting or blog service.... :-)

You are not in the good place here. This Wiki is composed largely of my own ramblings plus contributions by people who worked from me or were graduate students. We also did receive some contributions from the "outside", e.g. from advanced English writing students. Most "outsiders" just fix mistakes and add a link or so.

In some cases, one may talk about collaboration in this wiki, but rather in a weak sense. E.g. A writes something and then B comes later and adds stuff or similarly A writes a piece and then B links to it. No real interaction...

The only instances where there is some collaboration are created by teaching designs (contents are in french). With the exception of one course we only started using the wikis this summer or fall, so I don't have enough data. Anyhow, I give you a short summary in case you are interested (I plan to write a paper sometimes early next year about using a wiki as multi-purpose tool for note-taking, educational contents and student writing activities).

(1) Courses with some wiki activities

• http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/fr/Cat%C3%A9gorie:Maltt_Eia_2006-2007 (Part of a master-level course in Edutech, wiki only used for writing, driving is done with http://www.pageflakes.com/eian/
• http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/fr/Certificat_e-learning (Part of a training program, students write 2 articles and/or contribute to others. Driver is a Moodle LMS. Close to zero collaboration between students)

(2) Courses that only use the wiki (both just started)

• http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/fr/STIC_I This course may turn out to be interesting after a year or so, since it's the difficult "introduction to Internet" course I am teaching. A typical student experiences difficulties and ought to collaborate a bit. Only problem is that there are not many contents so far. Just discussion pages for exercises I put on-line.
• http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/STIC:STIC_III. This is the opposite. Lots of contents in the wiki, but Flash is fairly easy and the few students I have should cope .... to be seen.

Then we also host 2-3 wikis dedicated to courses outside our unit (e.g. high school biology). Interaction there happens only at group level and in presence situation.

Globally speaking, I think that most people (teachers and students) need a few years before they understand how to use a wiki. True writing collaboration never happens spontaneously, only when you build it into the teaching design (including enforcements). Outside teaching situations, I have never seen it happen... :(

- Daniel K. Schneider 11:55, 11 October 2007 (MEST)