So, explain to other English teachers:
- What are wikis?
- How can wikis be used in teaching English as a foreign language?
- What the teachers would need to do technically?
----------- to set one up
----------- to keep it working
What are wikis?
"Wikis are collaborative Web-based sites with "open editing." That is, the information on a wiki can be edited by any and all users. Once users visit wikis,they can read and, if they wish, edit or change the text by using a Web-browser to re-write, re-organize, or update the structure and content of the site. In wikis, readers are writers, and readers and writers jointly form a community of collaboration. Wikis can best be seen in action through the very popular Wikipedia [http://www.wikipedia.org/] and Wiktionary [http://wiktionary.org/]." (Ferris and Wilder, 2006, pp 2-3). If you haven't seen/experienced a wiki I suggest you take a look at Wikipedia before going on.
So, generally speaking, anyone can enter text onto a wiki page, edit any text, or create new pages and new hyperlinks. However, as you'll be using the wiki for class, you will probably want your wiki to have certain restrictions. You can make yourself the administrator/moderator/chief editor and "lock" certain pages that you want to be always visible and free from changes/edits. You can also specify and control who has access to the wiki. You can give all students in a class unique passwords so that additions and changes can be tracked. This can encourage students as they have (a kind of) proven ownership of their work. Or you could give the same password to all the students, but then you can't track changes by student. This may help encourage proactivity in the Chinese classroom with less outgoing students who may not participate for fear of making a mistake and being seen to lose face. However, this option also leaves more room for vandalism.
Wikis are simple to use because if you know how to use Word you can use a wiki. Students may need to learn a few more simple things, but the wiki itself will explain them and they can practice them straightaway without fear of ruining the wiki because another important point is that wikis are easily reversible. With this I mean that wikis automatically keep a history of changes so that things can easily be put back the way they were. This encourages bolder editing as any mistakes/changes of mind can be rectified straightaway or months later. It also helps discourage vandalism.
In case anyone asks, the word "wiki" was "coined by programmer Ward Cunningham (1949- ), from Hawaiian wiki-wiki ‘quick-quick.’" (Apple, 2009)
How can wikis be used in teaching English as a foreign language in China?
Obviously, as wikis are text based they lend themselves more readily to the skills of reading and writing. However, listening and speaking skills can be directly enhanced as wiki pages can have podcasts or videocasts embedded into them which students could listen to and watch, or even produce. Another important aspect is the sense of community collaboration/community learning that the wiki foments. Conversational English students could be assigned written wiki projects to complete together that they can later comment on/discuss (orally) in class. Thus the wiki would help provide a real reason to use English, while its asynchronous, online nature would tackle the typical excuse students use that they could never find time to get together to collaborate.
A wiki can encourage peer teaching/learning/support in that one student's text can be edited/corrected by other students. However, in a Chinese context this aspect of wikis needs to be carefully considered before being used - and I'm not even sure that many Chinese students would (initially) publicly want to correct other students for fear of shaming them. But I think that the idea of collective-ownership of work with all contributors being able to unilaterally edit fellow students' work can be a valuable life-experience for many Chinese students. Chinese students nowadays may suffer from "little-emperor syndrome", a direct consequence of the one-child policy. This condition manifests itself in arrogance, ego-centricity, and general anti-social behaviours - none of which are traits that western companies generally look for in their employees. This is a concern, because more than half of my students at this university state that they wish to work for a western company. So the lessons in teamwork, group goal over personal gain and initiative/proactivity can be far reaching. Though, for any lessons to be learnt, the students need to take an active interest in their contributions and what happens to them, which is something not always easy to achieve in a conversational English class taught by a foreigner in China. But as Clay Shirky observes: "A wiki in the hands of a healthy community works. A wiki in the hands of an indifferent community fails" (quoted in Lamb, 2004).
Archives of constantly updated information, relevant to the students and subject, can be created. Once a supportive environment has been established, students can share their knowledge and find out how teaching helps learning (or at least how organising/reflecting on one's thoughts helps deeper understanding).
Of course, the class wiki can lead to inter-class wikis if other English teachers are happy with the idea. I have no idea how inter-school or inter-country wikis would be viewed by students or school administration.
Separate areas of the wiki (or separate wikis) could be set up for certain students to collaborate on in private for debate or presentation projects for example.
What the teachers would need to do technically? - to set one up - to keep it working
When thinking about choosing a wiki, there "is no unified set of software characteristics that are shared by all wikis. The dozens of prominent wiki engines freely available for download on the Internet vary in approaches, programming languages, and architectures. Technical quirks of wiki systems, indicative of the often anarchic programming communities that have developed them, need to be considered before choosing a system" (Lamb, 2004).
Of course it goes without saying that the wiki should be set up and maintained at no financial cost (to you or the school). This means you need to set up a free wiki that can be password protected.
Working at a university in China means that certain western considerations may not be necessarily applicable. In the west, one might be well advised to first seek administrative approval and learn what the policy is on posting student information (names, photos, etc) on the internet is, and perhaps parent permission should also be sought (teachersfirst, 2009).
However, in China, two things advise against troubling school administration with such considerations. One is that the average foreign English teacher is merely tolerated (as a legal requirement for the teaching of English) and not actually expected or encouraged to go to great lengths to improve his/her students' level of English. Actively pointing out how teaching may be improved could be badly received as it could be understood as a criticism of current teaching methods. In order to save face the administration may resort to actively ignoring any requests to change teaching methodology. Absence of response may also be designed to save face for the foreign teacher as, in Chinese eyes, having their request denied would make the teacher lose face. Another complication would be that the school administration may agree to implement the use of wikis but actually do nothing about it. This again may be designed to save face for the teacher, and in Chinese eyes may not be considered misleading, a trick or deceitful in any way.
Another reason not to trouble school administration is that personal information doesn't seem to be as highly protected in China. A foreigner will find that without permission their personal details are passed on to 3rd parties if asked for and companies never heard of will send him/her letters, emails, sms and call at any time of the day or night. I would simply advise the teacher to set up a wiki that is password protected for viewing and editing. As for parental permission, I think parents may not understand why permission is being asked. Parents will agree to their son/daughter using a wiki provided you claim it's good for their child, and the child passes their oral English exams - which in China very rarely doesn't happen. It will be up to the teacher to try to make sure the student actually deserves their pass mark and makes the most of their wiki experience.
If school administration hears about the wiki, and takes an interest in it, you can give them a password that allows them to view the wiki. If they actually view the wiki and do see anything they don't like - which would probably be open, moderate to severe criticism of the school, China or its policies - then you could be fired, the police informed of your actions, you could be detained and then deported. If you're unsure of what you shouldn't discuss with students (and in many cases, teachers) then do an internet search.
Try to involve students in creating the editing policies/rules for the wiki. The greater their involvement in creating the wiki environment, the more likely they will follow those rules and participate in general. See http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/wikistep1.cfm for some ideas for polices.
Perhaps try to use the wiki as a shared English environment that students (don't have in real-life but) can experience, and refer to in discussions in class. However, the teacher should be cautious when intervening in the construction of this environment as to " truly empower students within collaborative or coconstructed activities requires the teacher to relinquish some degree of control over those activities. The instructor’s role shifts to that of establishing contexts or setting up problems to engage students. In a wiki, the instructor may set the stage or initiate interactions, but the medium works most effectively when students can assert meaningful autonomy over the process. It’s not that authority can’t be imposed on a wiki, but doing so undermines the effectiveness of the tool" (Lamb, 2004).
References
Apple Inc., (2005-2007) Apple Dictionary Version 1.0.2 (Accessed 11 January 2009).
Ferris, S. and Wilder, H. (2006) ‘Uses and potentials of wikis in the classroom’, Innovate, vol. 2, no. 5. [Online], Available from: http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?
view=article&id=258 (Accessed 11 January 2009).
Lamb, B. (2004) ‘Wide open space: wikis, ready or not’, Educause Review, vol. 39, no. 5
(September/October), pp. 36–48. [Online], Available from:
http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm04/erm0452.asp (Accessed 11 January 2009).
TeachersFirst (2006-2008) 'Index' http://www.teachersfirst.com/index.cfm
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