Mr Alex Mitchell, an Instructor at the Communications and New Media Programme, who allowed his students to blog for homework, embarked on another trailblazing effort in using technology in teaching: wikis in the classroom. Following on from Game Design I, Alex decided to experiment with wikis in NM4209 Game Design II.

For this module, Alex planned a blog and a wiki. The module blog was conceived as a channel for communication, while the module wiki was to be used as a collaborative group project space and for individual paper presentation reports.

With the group project, Alex positioned the wiki as a central place to store the group's ideas. As any student could add ideas to the wiki as they came along, the wiki would work like a repository. Once all their ideas were on a page, they could use it as a clearinghouse, with the group members coming to a consensus on what to add, what to delete and what to modify. The flexibility of the wiki allowed students to possibly use it as a planning and communication tool, in order to build common understanding.

However, the free-form structure of the wiki, or more accurately, the lack of structure, led to mixed results. Some groups, Alex noted, used the wiki to great effect. Other groups failed to come to terms with this relatively new technology, preferring the chronological structure of a group blog to brainstorm ideas and clarify thoughts.

Alex pinpointed a few areas of improvement. First, he intends to provide scaffolding or a template for the wiki pages. This will give the students some idea where to start and what they can possibly do with the wiki. He noted that there was not much motivation to use this collaborative tool, so he might give participation marks for using the wiki effectively.

Some game design firms use wikis in their workflow, Alex notes. This is especially when developers are geographically dispersed. While his students do not live hundreds or thousands of kilometers apart, he still thinks there is great potential for this tool.

The less successful area of the wiki was its use for the individual research papers. Alex required the students to critically analyze a research paper. He got his students to upload a summary of their presentations, with the other students posting questions based on the summaries. These were to be used as starting points for discussions during the tutorial.

The structure of the wiki did not lend itself well to promoting discussion. Students tended to concentrate on their own presentation pages, instead of perusing others and giving critiques or suggestions. In his case, both Alex and some of his students noted that a blog might have been a more appropriate platform.

From Alex's experience the previous semester, he feels that the wiki should be used primarily for collaborative activities. While Alex's first experiment with wikis did not go as well as desired, there are lessons to be learnt which are useful for other lecturers who want a collaborative online tool for their students.

Related Resources
What is a wiki? An introduction to the educational uses of an online collaboration tool known as a wiki: Wiki | Online Presentation (IE only)
Using Wiki in Education Blog
Using Wiki in Education article at The Science of Spectroscopy Wiki
Uses and Potentials of Wikis in the Classroom at Innovate Online (registration required, free)