Paper:Wiki Assessment
From unthinkMedia
Alex Britez Architecture of Learning Environments Ricki Goldman May 8, 2008
Contents |
Introduction
Riki Wiki, was developed to simulate an intergenerational framework that would serve as an evolving knowledge repository for students taking Architecture of Learning Environments (ALE). Through the developmental process of Riki Wiki, the group was able to uncover several affordances that made the need for collaborative tools in the educational space clearly apparent.
In this paper i will highlight the importance of collaborative tools in educational space as a source of knowledge management (KM) and acquisition. I will highlight how wikis have taken many of the principles behind the open source movement, and incorporated them to acquire collaborative knowledge base, and how this integration processes has helped in several aspect of the growth and validity wiki technology.
I will also highlight several Cognitive Theories that help in further understanding the benefits that wiki's and other forms of collaboration have in an educational institution.
Why a Wiki?
The word wiki derives from the Hawaiian word "wikiwiki" which translates to "quick", this is a reference to the speed of content creation that wikis offer. Wikis, such as Riki Wiki enable documents to be authored collaboratively. Wikis offer an easy way for users that may not be comfortable using HTML, to quickly create and modify information on a web page.
Since the wiki environment enables users to modify any other user's website, there needs to be a method of versioning. Wikis tackle this problem by archiving prior versions of the website in the event the site needs to be rolled back or compared to a prior state. Wikis also add metadata to the web pages such as original author, last modified by, and date the action took place.
Open Source Knowledge Management
Wiki have been designed in a way that resemble many of the key features related to open source software development. They have been said to follow the Bazaar-style methods for knowledge asset creation and knowledge management (Wagner, 2006). The Bazaar-style is the framework used for open source software development.
According to Wagner (2006), the similarities between wikis and the Bazaar-style are:
- Sense of responsibility in contributing to a common good.
- Openness to change and modification by anyone.
- Meritocracy (anyone can play, but only good players last).
- Self-governance of the development team.
- Task decomposition and incremental development.
- Use of technology for communication and coordination, as well as norms for their use, including objectivity (neutral point of view)
- Ease of use for knowledge creation and maintenance.
These similarities brought about empirical testing comparing Wikipedia and Bavaar-Style development. You can see some of the results documented by Wagner below.
| Dimension | Bazaar-Style Development | Wikipedia Adaptation |
| Artifacts | value proposition Modular design | Yes - free encyclopedia Yes - loosely coupled articles |
| Group | Core team Voluntary Participation | Yes - multi person effort Yes - only the owner gets paid |
| Process | Version management Frequent Early Releases | Yes - through wiki Yes |
| Governance | Open license Lightweight | Yes - through GPL license Yes |
| Performance | Fast Development High Quality | Yes Yes |
Authority through Governance
Authority derives from the widespread faith in intellectual honesty and the power of collective intelligence (Morville, 2005). If the Bazaar development model holds true, then although there may be a periodic vandal which could taint the knowledge on a wiki, there are far more user that have an interest in the topic. A famous quote often cited comes from Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux operating system: "Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow." The chances that someone will find a "bug" [inaccuracy] in the source code [wiki article] is the greatest when there are many people are using the software, and have the ability to make edits to the content (Lahti, 2005). Wikis allow users to act as hackers in the sense that they if they find an inaccuracy in an article they are able submit a patch ["correction"] immediately. This is clearly not an option for closed source application (Lahti, 2005). For example sending a "Letter to the Editor" to a newspaper that made a mistake on a newspaper article will, in the best case, result in a retraction to that error by the editor on the following issue. Although an admirable attempt at correction by the newspaper, the misinformation has already been dispersed. Let suppose the reader was able to "white out" that error and fix it for the newspaper as soon as the reader found it then a lot less people would have been exposed to the misinformation. Thus, the quality of open source tends to be very high because of the constant peer review of developers, users, and hackers who make up the project community (Lahti, 2005, p. 91).
ﾠ
In the figure below, Miguel-Angel Sicilia creates a mathematical representation of degrees of centrality which effect a users authoritative rank on a topic in Wikipeida. Miguel-Angel Sicilia states that:
- In our Wiki network model, the amount of incoming edges represents edits to the text; therefore, the metric of inner degree is the opposite, meaning that the person with the biggest inner degree has the biggest amount of objection/ rejection in the contributor community, and thus receives a kind of negative evaluation from his/ her fellow contributors. On the other hand, the outer-degree of the vertex represents edits/ participation in several parts of the article, and thus gives a clue to the activity of the person in relation to the article and the domain. Mathematically, we can represent such formalism as follows: considering a graph representing the network of contributors for an article contributed in the Wiki, the contributor degree centrality ? a contextualized expression of actor degree centrality ? is a degree index of the adjacent connections between the contributor and others who edit the article. From graph theory, the outer degree of a vertex is the cumulative value of its adjacent connections:
ﾠ [ADD IMAGE HERE] ﾠ
Above is a visualization of the social network of the contributors for the article "Immanuel Kant". Nodes in the core denote high degree centrality (Sicilia, 2006, p. 206).
Through the illustration we could see a visual representation of the authoritative levels of wikipedia users surrounding this topic. As we can see, all though there are users with misguided knowledge, the good out weighs the bad. According to the Bazaar style and open source development the collaborators in the inner area will possibly not last in the topic and eventually be phased out completely (Wagner, 2006). In respect to the Riki Wiki community, and other wikis based on classroom instruction, the authority level would be much higher. Most student would be basing there entries off of reading and note which contain expert knowledge. Although there may be debate and controversy, most of them would probably surface in class room discussion, or in non wiki related assignments. The classroom or online discussion forum could then serve as the democratic outlet for topics that stir controversy and the outme of those conversations would be reflective of the perspective wiki entry. Wikipedia includes an accompanying "talk" page for users to debate over topics and substantiate the merit of their posts or objections (Sunstein, 2006, p. 152).
Navigational Strategies
Taxonomy
Wikis categorize the articles in an associative taxonomy. They are classified based on a collection of articles that focus on a similar subject (eg. findablity). Articles are made part of a category, which is a collection of domains that have a common categorical and etymological root (Sicilia, 2006, p 258). For instance in Riki Wiki both "user-centered design" and "software design" share a connection to "Design Principles". This helps in ordering and structuring knowledge in a way that user and prospective collaborator could easily find their way around the wiki. This association however is dependent on the collaborator to create, so it is possible for an article about "design principles" to mistakenly or maliciously be placed under "Class Documentation". However, there is no individual ownership of wiki pages so everyone works to improve everyone's contribution (Wagner, 2006, p 80), this contribution includes classification.
Social Navigation
Social Navigation enables users to select their navigational experience based on social trends. In an educational environment, such as Riki Wiki, trends may be reflective of the topics discussed in class or reading assignments. Another possible social navigational functionality on wikis would be creating a more sophisticate approach similar to Amazon's collaborative filtering. For example having a list of recommended articles to review, "User that edited this document also edited these other documents."
Search Strategies
Getting lost is a bad thing. It is associated with confusion, frustration, anger, and fear (Morville, 2007). Riki Wiki, offers enhanced searching features to assist user in finding the content that best suits their needs. This becomes more important in a wiki environment where the navigation taxonomies are also created and selected by the collaborator. The search system is the central part of a supplemental search system (Morville, 2007)
Indexing Media
One of the main features that was made apparent through our groups internal research was the lack of media types in wikis. To help in alleviating this issue Riki Wiki allows users to upload any Microsoft Office Document (Power Point, Word, Excel) and PDF. The document is then index using the full text of the document, and made available for the search engine to locate. This is extremely beneficial in higher educational institution where knowledge is gained through alternative learning experiences. For example most professors in NYU use Power Point Slides to help explain topics and narrate the class. They may also have several academic journals that serve as reference to those topics.
Search Zones
Search Zones are subsets of the website that have been indexed separately from the rest of the sites content. The value of using subsets in an educational wiki environment like Riki Wiki, is that there are sometimes overlaps in knowledge that may be beneficial to the student. An example of this would be "Psychology" and "Graphic Design". For example "Cognitive Load" may be beneficial for both types of students if they decide to search for "design principles" in both zones. This also improves the retrievals performance by eliminating content that is irrelevant to the students need at that moment.
Grouping Result
Research at Microsoft and the University of California at Berkeley suggest improved performance are clustered by category (Morville, 2007). Riki Wiki uses existing metadata such as an attachments document type, comments, articles, and blog post to help provide context to the result. This helps the search result look organized and separates the results in smaller chunks which help in avoiding cognitive load.
Cognitive Theory behind wikis
Learning by Teaching
Riki Wiki creates an environment where the student is empowered and is given the opportunity to be the educator. Every time a student adds updates a page on Riki Wiki they are essentially teaching what they learned to the Riki Wiki knowledge base. This process of teaching a concept in order to learn it, is very similar to having students make a presentation to the class, or graduate students becoming teachers assistants. A wiki's collaborative interaction with other students has a motivational component that may not be clearly visible in other inanimate instructional materials, for example writing an essay on paper. Students are more motivated to make sure the knowledge they share is correct if they are given the responsibility to teach someone else (Lajoie, 1999).
Conversation Theory
Riki Wiki creates an environment where conversation and dialog could serve to mold the content. It is a wiki's nature to allow an open environment for users to promote their point of view. There is always the possibility that conflicting interpretations that may arise. With democratic discussion and debates of these topics by the the site collaborators, all parties are able to seek a shared agreement, or mutual understanding.
Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL)
Riki Wiki creates an environment in which interaction among students plays a central role in the learning process. This collaborative method promotes critical thinking skills, and involves students actively in the learning process (Roberts, 2004).
Constructionist Theory
According to Christian Wagner's evaluations of Wikipedia and the Bazaar-style of development, none of the 80 articles in his test had less then 18 co-authors. The maximum co-authors of an individual article was 285, with an average of more then 96 authors per article. This type of collaboration helps to evolve the wikis knowledge base quickly.
Although an initial entry might be thin and lacking any substantiated information, it is not looked at as a bad entry by Wikipedia's standards. In fact, thin entries are described as "stubs," inviting more sustained treatment (Wagner, 2006). So wiki's thrive off of knowledge building.
Limitations
In an interview in Businessweek Online, the creator of Linux and pioneer of the open-source movement, believes that not all knowledge is are suitable for open-source. The creation of that knowledge may be too personal or linear. In respect to Riki Wiki , this was made apparent in areas of the site such as "course syllabus". The syllabus is linear piece of knowledge that should not change over time, unless changed by the author ["professor"]. However, this sort of functionality would not be a typical use of an open wiki environment. It is my opinion that wiki are better served as a Knowledge Management tool as opposed to Learning Management tool.
The quality of knowledge in a wiki is only as good as the collaborators. Bazaar-style knowledge management relies on on volunteers who are genuinely interested in the cause (Wagner, 2006). The good thing about Riki Wiki, is that it is maintained by a small group of volunteers that contain "expert knowledge" on the subject of "information architecture". If wiki maintenance is made part of the course curriculum then I believe that the knowledge base will grow pretty rapidly and eventually, with enough iterations, the quality would be extremely high level. Several student may actually become high authoritative figures in certain aspects of the wiki then others. For example a student in our class with a background in graphic design may have a great understanding of color theory then a student with a background in programming.
Annotations where very difficult to find a suitable home for on the Riki Wiki interface. Having multiple instances of the same article does not agree with the definition of a wiki. Wikis are suppose to build on a piece of knowledge. Fragmented parts of knowledge are more suited for discussion boards or comments on blogs, however in the case of annotation they could be quite lengthy in size. Having users express their opinions on individual topics seem to bear more resemblance to personal blogs. The student should be able to annotate on their own blog, which could be commented on by their peers or other people on the web that may have stumbled upon it.
Accuracy of posts is a common limitation in wiki. However this limitation is what make wiki such a great tool. The transparent development of knowledge, and a visual real time view of users constructionist learning. If the governance level of the community is predominantly strong and the users are active in the community then the content will reflect that.
Product Comparison: Riki vs. ALEX (no pun intended)
Although wikis could serve as an extremely powerful tool in education, it by no means is meant to be a sole alternative to Learning Management Software, at least not effectively. Wikis could help professors quickly create a non editable sites that houses course content and close it to the the public, or use it to manage and acquire the knowledge of their students. Attempting to do both may decrease usability and findablitiy, which what was the issue on Riki Wiki.
ALEX on the other hand, is a powerful peace of software. Although there are still kinks that need to be to addressed, there is real promise. ALEX allows for a mixture of all the technologies that we focused on during our semester. Blogs and wikis are already a part of ALEX, along with discussion boards, media libraries, and a slew of other features. The ALEX/Sakai NYU development team even spoke about looking into social networking from within the LMS.
Enhancements
in Riki Wiki
During user testing it was quickly made apparent that vocabulary is extremely important when developing a collaborative environment. The majority of usability testers working with Riki Wiki got confused navigating the site when faced with word like "label" instead of "tags". Identifying the preferred terms of users of the site would dramatically improve usability.
Hidden navigational elements also create some confusion. Collapsible navigation on Riki Wiki is not necessary, so the navigation will be recoded to be remain persistent throughout the entire users experience.
in Learning Management
The enhancement that I would like to see in Learning Management are based around collaboration and extensibility solutions. Working on our group projects made it clear that collaborative environments are exceptional in education. With rise of web-based collaborative software ranging from word processing (www.buzzword.com) to video editing (www.kaltura.com), tools should be created to help student work together within the learning environment. This would extremely benefit Distance Learning and student working in Project Based Learning classes such as this class.
Bibliography:
McGee, Patricia (Editor). Course Management Systems for Learning: Beyond Accidental Pedagogy. Hershey, PA, USA: Information Science Publishing, 2005.
Lajoie, Susanne P.(Editor). Artificial Intelligence in Education : Open Learning Environments : New Computational Technologies to Support Learning. Amsterdam, , NLD: IOS Press, 1999.
Roberts, Tim S. Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning in Higher Education. Hershey, PA, USA: Idea Group Publishing, 2004.
Bach, Shirley. Online Learning and Teaching in Higher Education. Buckingham, , GBR: Open University Press, 2006.
Sunstein, Cass R. Infotopia : How Many Minds Produce Knowledge. Cary, NC, USA: Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2006.ﾠ
Morville, Peter Authority October 11, 2005 http://semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/000057.php
Hamm, S (2004, August 18). Linus Torvalds' benevolent dictatorship. Business Week Online. retrieved from http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2004/tc20040818_1593.htm
Sicilia, Miguel-Angel. Advances in Digital Information Services and Metadata Research. Bradford, , UK: Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2006.
Lahti, Christian. Sarbanes - Oxley IT Compliance Using COBIT and Open Source Tools. Rockland, MA, USA: Syngress Publishing, 2005.
Sunstein, Cass R. Infotopia : How Many Minds Produce Knowledge. Cary, NC, USA: Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2006. p 152.
