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Conceptual enhancement via textual plurality:: a pedagogical Wiki bow towards collaborative structuration

Published: 21 October 2007 Publication History

Abstract

In this paper, I present how I use wikis in my undergraduate courses to try to enhance conceptual comprehension. This WikiConcept research is housed within a theoretical perspective entitled "Communal Constructivism" (CC). According to CC, students construct learning "for" as well as "with" others, ideally leaving their imprint in the development of the course, their school or university, and ideally the discipline. As I argued previously (Fountain, 2005), "The goal of such "co-curricularization" is to influence the quality of ALL work, not just one's own. Quality is to be influenced OVER TIME (long term sustainability of knowledge-Ciffolilli, 2003 & Schwartz, 2004), ACROSS collectivities (across students, over classes, over years, over generations-Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1994), VIA open-natured projects and TOWARDS creating "impossible public goods" (Ciffolilli, 2003)." While the development and implementation of this conceptual enhancement project across time and collectivities has taken place over several years, the evaluation of these peer-to-peer conceptualizations has just begun (winter, 2007). This paper reports on students (n = 85) reported conceptual comprehension when asked to read and evaluate three differing co-elaborated texts (wiki texts produced by their peers in previous sessions of the same course in technology) regarding the concept of "Cookie". The same "Cookie" text did not "work" (enable greater comprehension) for all students. Many students appreciated a given text for the same reasons (both in terms of form and content) that many others did not. Again, while these results are preliminary, it appears that conceptual comprehension may be enhanced by systematic inclusion of and instance upon engagement with multiple, (and in this case) textual representations of a given concept. Such an insistence upon "a textual plurality around the same, the "always already", is seen as a pedagogical wiki bow towards enacting collaborative structuration research and practice.

References

[1]
Fountain, Renée-Marie. Wiki Pedagogy. Dossiers technopédagogiques. PROFeTIC. (2005). 05 May, 2007 <http://www.profetic.org/dossiers/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=110>
[2]
Holmes, B., Tangney, B., Fitzgibbon, A., Savage, T, & Mehan, S. Communal constructivism: Students constructing learning for as well as with others. (2004).05 May, 2007 <<http://www.cs.tcd.ie/publications/tech-reports/reports.01/TCD-CS-2001-04.pdf>
[3]
Surowiecki, James. The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations. (2004). Doubleday, Random House.
[4]
West, Patrick. "The Convergence Potentials of Collaboration & Adaptation: A Case Study in Progress." M/C Journal 9.2 (2006). 07 May, 2007 <<http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0605/16-west.php>

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  • (2018)Interactivity in online discussions and learning outcomesComputers & Education10.5555/2912255.291249197:C(116-128)Online publication date: 29-Dec-2018
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  • (2016)How Interactive is a Semantic Network? Concept Maps and Discourse in Knowledge CommunitiesProceedings of the 2016 49th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS)10.1109/HICSS.2016.265(2095-2104)Online publication date: 5-Jan-2016
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    cover image ACM Conferences
    WikiSym '07: Proceedings of the 2007 international symposium on Wikis
    October 2007
    190 pages
    ISBN:9781595938619
    DOI:10.1145/1296951
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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    Publication History

    Published: 21 October 2007

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    Author Tags

    1. co-elaboration
    2. collaboration
    3. communal constructivism
    4. concept development
    5. higher education
    6. intertextuality
    7. intratextuality
    8. technology
    9. wikis

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    WikiSym07
    WikiSym07: International Symposium on Wikis
    October 21 - 25, 2007
    Quebec, Montreal, Canada

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    View all
    • (2018)Interactivity in online discussions and learning outcomesComputers & Education10.5555/2912255.291249197:C(116-128)Online publication date: 29-Dec-2018
    • (2018)Deconstructing online social learning: network analysis of the creation, consumption and organization types of interactionsInternational Journal of Research & Method in Education10.1080/1743727X.2018.1524867(1-22)Online publication date: 11-Nov-2018
    • (2016)How Interactive is a Semantic Network? Concept Maps and Discourse in Knowledge CommunitiesProceedings of the 2016 49th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS)10.1109/HICSS.2016.265(2095-2104)Online publication date: 5-Jan-2016
    • (2015)Blog-Integrated Writing With Blog-BuddiesJournal of Educational Computing Research10.1177/073563311561558854:2(225-252)Online publication date: 14-Dec-2015
    • (2014)Knowledge fixation and accretion: longitudinal analysis of a social question-answering siteJournal of Documentation10.1108/JD-04-2013-005070:5(711-733)Online publication date: 2-Sep-2014
    • (2013)Users’ experiences and perceptions on using two wiki platforms for collaborative learning and knowledge managementOnline Information Review10.1108/OIR-03-2011-004337:2(304-325)Online publication date: 12-Apr-2013
    • (2011)Using online collaborative tools for groups to co‐construct knowledgeOnline Information Review10.1108/1468452111116194535:4(581-597)Online publication date: 9-Aug-2011
    • (2009)Pre-service teachers' experiences with WikiProceedings of the 5th International Symposium on Wikis and Open Collaboration10.1145/1641309.1641353(1-2)Online publication date: 25-Oct-2009

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