Could you give us some examples of projects you have conducted on the use of wikis and wiki software in teaching and learning?

Dr. Harrie Manders: Last year I worked in three projects about wikis in education.

The first was a national (Dutch) Surf Project: from social software to a repository of reusable learning objects. Students in the field of social studies make a lot of products (reports) with descriptions, definitions, and cases. In this project, we are trying to create a kind of repository to save these products in a way that they are easily recoverable for other students or for practitioners in social professions (social work and human resources management).

The goal of this project was to let the students create their own learning objects. Students had to put their material in a wiki. They could read and correct each others' materials. We made a format for a learning object in this wiki. In this format, you could choose to give a description of a concept or you could describe a case. We got an inter-related (linked) wiki with information. This information can be used in a learning setting in a way that students can add, correct, or expand the lemmas in the wiki.

Another project at the Fontys University of Applied Sciences was about creating a canon (body of knowledge) in the field of Human Resources Management (HRM). Sixty students read journals in HRM and had to make a summary of some articles. In these articles, students had to search for technical terms and special procedures that are used in HRM. In groups of six, they had to create their own wiki and had to put their materials in it. They had to read each others' results. Eventually they corrected and made comments on their descriptions. Each group presented its filled wiki to the others.

I also worked on a project about the creation of a dictionary of career-development terms. The work included technical terms from the publications of lectors and some members of the knowledge circle of career development at Fontys University. Some students made a wiki about this dictionary that was then presented to career-development professionals. It is an open wiki where everyone - students and professionals - can respond and make modifications or extensions to the text. The goal is to create a community of coaches in career development and vocational education.

The projects are all about the creation of learning objects in a wiki as an activating learning task. The result - a repository of learning objects - is not the goal, but rather the process of knowledge creation and collaboration between students and professionals. We tried to create a community of students and sometimes professionals about topics in HRM.

What is the common pedagogical and didactical background of these projects?

Dr. Harrie Manders: A philosophical, pedagogical, and didactical foundation of all these projects is the theory of connectivism. In connectivism, there is an attempt to achieve an integration of principles explored by chaos, network, complexity, and self-organization theories. Learning is a process that occurs within nebulous environments of shifting core elements - not entirely under the control of the individual.

Learning can reside outside of us, within an organization or in a wiki. Our current state of knowing is less important than our competence to connect to specialized information sets, such as people, networks, books, or other information bases. It was George Siemens who combined relevant elements of many learning theories, social structures, and technology to create a powerful theoretical construct for learning in the digital age.

Another foundation is the principle of unfinished work. The art of unfinished work is the challenge given to others to build further on a task. Unfinished work is not a disqualification but a talent to stimulate others to develop their talents. It's not necessary to finish the work in the way the originator wanted it. Unfinished work gives a play area to the individual who finishes it. (Vocabulary of Career Development 2006)

A third foundation is the metaphor of the "labyrinth of learning". You can get lost in labyrinths, but it is an art to lose your way and then find something you weren't looking for. That is often the source of creativity. The art - or competence - of finding, inventing, and discovering (ars inveniendi) has to be trained in teaching and learning. The wiki in an educational setting is a special tool to challenge students to walk though labyrinths and learn in a way that breaks through boundaries (Manders, H. in Aken van, Reynaert: Labyrintologie, Scriptum publishers, Schiedam 2007).

From your point of view, what makes wikis so special as educational tools?

Dr. Harrie Manders: Wikis are very useful in education. Wikis are easily to access. You can work individually and in a group. Often, a community is formed around a wiki with authors, correctors, and sometimes also a moderator. You can also get groups of students who communicate and interact with professionals.

Furthermore, students can work on it at the university or at home. The materials in a wiki are easily added and changed. This process can be tracked, so you can see how it develops.

You learn most of a subject when you are teaching. In the same way, students can learn a lot about a subject when they create a wiki about it. It is an active way of learning.
In a wiki you are welcome as a visitor, and you are invited to make your additions. When you click on a hyperlink and see a page or term that is not described, you can add your own definitions.

A wiki is a tool to create knowledge, knowledge that can be tested and made more valid, knowledge that can be put in a context of practice by adding case materials and good or bad practices. Not only the result, but the process of working with it makes it a rich tool for learning.