Wikipedia, the website I was using as a real e-encyclopedia with highly trust until I heard all terms on this website are created and edited by users who have knowledge on specific terms. And then, I given up to use Wikipedia for several years. In recent two years, I picked Wikipedia again when I need to learn strange terms in my personal knowledge space sometimes as an addition source than Google. After viewed last week’s readings and video, I gained a more particular knowledge of wiki form websites which is pretty new to me.
As a collaborative create and edit style website, wikis give educators a new space to working cooperatively and lead students learning in a convenience team work. In the reading, the two way learning process is really interesting and I had never think a wiki site can contain such great learning opportunity. In the wiki style learning process, the two way learning are internalization and externalization (Cress, U & Kimmerle, J., 2007). The internalization process occurs when an individual’s knowledge space has difference between with wiki’s information and the individual can change his/her existing knowledge schema through enlarging or revising. The externalization process usually can been seen when a person create or edit the content on a wiki site as way to output his/her existing knowledge. Not only allow of the creation of an artifact, the externalization can lead to individual learning processes, and a contributor to a wiki article can expand his/her individual knowledge space through acquiring new knowledge units which were not part of the individual’s knowledge space before. (Cress, U & Kimmerle, J., 2007).
Another cool perspective in the reading is the Piaget’s model of equilibration (Piaget, 1977a, 1977b) reflect in the wiki’s learning opportunity. The equilibrium theory describes the way people try to maintain a balance between the environmental information on the one hand and their cognitive schemas on the other hand (Cress, U & Kimmerle, J., 2007). When people understand new knowledge based on their existing cognitive schema and then integrate those information into this schema, it could say people assimilate the new information. When people change the current knowledge schema in order to better understanding the new information rather than just integrate new knowledge into to it, an accommodation process occurs.
Thus, through learning with wikis, collaborative learning, cognitive learning, and interest-driven learning can be observed. Besides, benefiting by the internet and mobile devices’ applied in people daily life, people can learning and distribute knowledge anytime and anywhere that internet covered.
Wiki sites:
1. Minecraft Wiki (https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Minecraft_Wiki)
A publicly accessible and editable wiki for information related to Minecraft include term definitions, code samples, and open access community projects.
2. Wikiveristy (https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:Main_Page)
Wikiversity is a project devoted to learning resources, learning projects, and research for use in all levels, types, and styles of education from pre-school to university, including professional training and informal learning.
3. Google Doc and Goole Spreadsheet
Currently, a lots of instructors start to use Google Doc and Google Spreadsheet to encourage students create, edit, and share knowledge collaboratively. I think Google Doc, Google Spreadsheet, and other cloud based co-edit applications can be used as a group made wiki site.