A focus on technology...

“Knowledge sharing and creation is at the heart of innovation in all fields […] Knowledge cannot be transferred; it can only be enacted, through a process of understanding, through which people interpret information and make judgements on the basis of it […]” (Leadbeater, 2000:12) [1].

This is the statement I chose in January to start my final paper of the first semester. I pose it again because, in my opinion, it well sums up the way we have worked so far with wikis and Skype exchanges.

If I think of all the things we have learnt and done so far and the things we will learn and do in the next few weeks, I realize how important new media tools are in the context of knowledge creation and acquisition. At first, knowing that the computer and new technologies would accompany us throughout the course worried me, because I wasn’t accustomed to learn English by means of media applications and I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to deal with them. Fortunately, as the course went on I experienced quite a positive use of technology, experiential and interactive.

Developing our six wiki pages and conversing every week with my American peer made me understand the importance of ‘learning-by-doing’, co-operation and negotiation and, most importantly, made me reflect on the close, triple connection existing between the communicative function of language, the use of technology and the process of creating and sharing knowledge.

Maria Chiara

[1] Source: Bruns A. and Humphreys S. 2005 “Wikis in Teaching and Assessment: The M/Cyclopedia Project”.

Wiki-ing and Skype-ing: two ways of building knowledge

“Knowledge work requires people to be actively creative, to collaborate, to understand the shape of project work, and to be willing to learn continuously”(Bruns and Humphreys, 2005: 3).

I think that what Bruns and Humphreys state about knowledge work well sums up the kind of work we have done and we are still doing for the English course: blogging, wiki-ing and skype-ing are all good ways for exploring the immense, boundless, never lasting world of knowledge.

There are many ways of acquiring knowledge. Some of them are “traditional”, i.e. reading a book, going to a library, listening to a teacher, etc.; others are brand new, the “sons” of the Digital Age and the abovementioned “-ings” are three of these sons. These new media tools are helpful vehicles which oblige all of us to enact our understandings and give our contribution to the construction of knowledge.

The notion itself of ‘student’ has changed. In the context of social project-based strategies for learning, a student is no longer a separate part of the whole community, but a part of the main and every single student’s contribution is indispensable to the process of knowledge building. Far from being mere passive consumers, we have become active producers of knowledge who write collectively on a wiki page for the same purpose: learn and have our peers learn.

The notion of ‘classroom’ has changed as well. Thanks to Skype, I realized that the traditional classroom has virtually enlarged and become a potentially infinite learning space. The fact that students who are physically divided by an ocean have the possibility to use a computer to reduce distances and share their knowledge by means of a small microphone is absolutely amazing... How powerful knowledge is!

Source Bruns A. and Humphreys S. 2005 "Wikis in Teaching and Assessment: The M/Cyclopedia Project"

A reflection on wiki-ing...

Throughout the first semester I learned to create and use blogs to express my ideas about coursework and share them with my peers, through the comment function, whereas now I’m writing on my personal blog, my ‘online diary’, to express my thoughts without my classmates being supposed to read what I write. In a few words, I am blogging in a reflective way, translating my ‘flux of thoughts’ into words. My last post, for instance, was focused on stereotypes, simply because in that moment I felt like thinking about “stereotypes” and discussing a little bit about that particular topic. Now I feel like reflecting on wiki-ing, in particular on how difficult collective writing is, how delicate and challenging… This is precisely what I think wiki-ing is: a ‘collective challenge’.

Challenges can be both ‘personal’- if they affect your private life - and ‘collective’, if they involve a group of people, for instance a band, a team of doctors, researchers or… a wiki group! These two kinds of challenges may imply different ways of facing the problem, different approaches, strategies and solutions, but there is one aspect that binds these two categories together: they both require great effort and determination.

In the case of a ‘collective challenge’, if it is true that every group of people working together has its peculiarities (its goals, problems, etc.), it is also true that all kinds of collective activities require a specific approach, based on co-operation, collaboration, negotiation and sometimes it’s not easy for all the members to integrate in the community and find a common ‘line of action’.

Perhaps, this is the basic problem university students encounter when dealing with wikis and I think that it is mainly due to the fact that at school students are not accustomed to working in group, they are entire of themselves and compete with each other. On the contrary, wiki-ing wants each student to be a piece of the wiki world, put his/her knowledge at the class’ disposal and accept that his/her contribution might be questioned. If these ‘rules’ are respected by all the contributors, collective work turns out to be highly constructive, but, unfortunately, collaborative writing can end up being highly destructive as well, if within the group there is someone who is not motivated to be ‘a part of the main’.

That’s why I really appreciated the fact that last week Sarah divided us into small groups of 2-3 people to edit the wiki page Alternative Energy Sources in Italy. That way, I think that each of us can carry out a better work: as we pay more attention to a smaller piece of writing and collaborate effectively with a few classmates, we are ‘unconsciously’ more motivated to improve the wiki page. We can better ‘control’ our work. At the end of the whole process, however, what counts is the overall work, that is, the sum of every single contribution.