Elizabeth's Reflection 2

Tharp (2010) describes the use of wiki as the “hook that would motivate and engage students” in collaborative writing. This medium of working together allows students to work on a platform that they are more familiar and comfortable with, and also allows them to move away from the “formal assessment” mentality. There is an added sense of ownership to their work since students would have had to create and design their homepage, ensuring it is presentable and reader-friendly. This avenue of learning and working together would work well with students who prefer an environment that is less structured, which gives them the flexibility to work at their own pace and timing. 

Tharp’s “Wiki, Wiki, Wiki –WHAT?” gives an insight into how group dynamics has effects on how the group operates in working collaboratively. The two main ways in which groups will operate are dialogically (where all group members work together in all aspects) and hierarchically (where the work is distributed into parts and each works on their own parts). While the latter may result in greater efficiency, the main intent of working collaboratively would not be achieved. The use of wiki (a more elaborate version of GoogleDocs) allows students to edit each others’ work and giving feedback to one other. This way, there is an exchange of ideas both offline (in class) and online (as they work on the wiki page). 

While there may be “loopholes” when it comes to assessing students’ work that are done collaboratively online, careful scaffolding of the rubrics as well as implementing guidelines for the students will ensure that the work done will fulfil the objectives of working collaboratively. The advantage of using wiki spaces is that the teacher is able to monitor the progress of the group by checking the “history log”, which shows how much each person has contributed at every stage. Although the activity takes place in cyberspace, the role of the teacher continues to remains vital in ensuring that there are no “slackers” in the groups.

Paul Sze, in his article “Online Collaborative Writing Using Wikis” mentions that students enjoyed this form of writing activity as it “led to a visible product on the Web: the completed Wiki”. I believe the use of an online platform, such as wiki, in collaborative writing not only encourages students of different skills and personalities to learn from one other, but it also takes them away from the monotony of a classroom and into an environment where they are able to discuss freely.