Lesson Plans Incorporating Wikis

This week our project is to present a lesson plan in which we would use wikis. I have chosen a lesson plan that I would use in a university museum setting for students taking a basic art class on museum experience. My interest for this project would be to emphasize to students that there are artists everywhere. Even in Kansas!

Students would be learning the content in class and in the museum. Outside of class they would be divided into groups with each group taking a time period in American art. They would utilize the wiki to create a site that ties the American moments they have been assigned to historical and contemporary Kansas artists. This would allow for students to create their own learning experience and learn from others at the same time using a type of communal contructivist outlook on their own learning.

I think wikis would work well for this type of project. Students couldn't work in class on the actual wiki. Class time would be used for content and all wiki work would be done outside of class. This would constitute all homework assigned for this unit, and be a significant part of their final grade.

Birger Sandzen Kansas Artist

courtesy Beach Museum of Art

For instance, students might compare Kansas Artist Birger Sandzen to Post Impressionist Vincent van Gogh and discuss similarities between each man's style and technique.

Vincent van Gogh Post Impressionist courtesy Wiki Paintings Visual Art Encyclopedia

Title: American Art Movements and Kansas Regionalist Art

Target Audience: Art Experience Students- College Freshman

Training Objectives: Students will have an understanding of the historical movements of art in the United States and will be able to apply the qualities of each movement to applicable Kansas Artists

Materials needed:

·         Regular classroom handouts for art movements

·         Wiki how to sheets

·         Rubric

·         Computers/Internet access

Instruction Procedure:

Week 1- Introduction to art movements and expectations

Week 2- Group division and Brainstorm-Introduction to Wikis

Week 3-6 Outside class work on Wikis

Week 7- Group Presentations of Wiki

Week 8-Self and Group Evaluation

Suggested Activities and Practices: Descriptions of Art Movements, Style Examples, Maps, Timelines, Artist Quotes, journal entries

Evaluation/Rubric: Students will be graded on

·         Collaborative Effort

·         Content

·         Visual Aesthetic

·         References

Student References for wiki:

http://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/timelines/art_history_timelines.htm

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/art-history-timeline.html

http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0906942.html

http://www.artinthepicture.com/styles/Regionalism/

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1359&context=greatplainsquarterly

http://www.kansashistory.us/artists/

References for blog posting:

Allen, E. (2007). Integrating learning types and cognitive taxonomies: Wedding two classic models. Journal of Psychological Type, 67(7), 59-70. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.er.lib.k-state.edu/docview/621629213?accountid=11789

Tangney, B., FitzGibbon, A., Savage, T., Mehan, S., & Holmes, B. (2001). Communal Constructivism: Students constructing learning for as well as with others. In Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (Vol. 2001, No. 1, pp. 3114-3119).

Why Wiki?

As an additional tool in the adult classroom Wikis have been used to extend and create learning environments that are more exciting than the traditional online environment. Wikis involve using technology to create a “community of practice” among learners (Kathleen P. King, Thomas D Cox, 2011, p. 124) extending the classroom out of the traditional and online classroom environments and into the lives of other learners. To be honest if I were to describe them in the most non technical terms possible I would liken them to the group projects of junior high, where everyone in a group had a specific part of a project to create on their own then brought them together to make one big tri-fold presentation or poster. That is simplistic of course, but it covers the basics. Wikis go beyond that and allow for each member of the group to change, update and edit each other’s work either for good or bad.

The good points of having a wiki are numerous. Instead of having to shuttle kids junior high style from one house to the other to find time to work on this group project. Wikis allow for collaboration limited only by the parameters of the internet. Access is not limited to a specific city, time zone or even country. As many or few people can be added to the space to participate as the administrator or the group desires.  Accessibility to the wiki also offers consistent editing features allowing for one cohesive product. (James A West, Margaret L West, 2009)These are just the benefits for students or collaborators. There are other benefits for the teacher or administrator too. They have the benefit of looking in one place at a group’s work; they can see when new items are posted and how the wiki comes together, which can be an indicator of group dynamics and organization.

Most issues I have found in using a Wiki have less to do with the actual functionality of the Wiki and more to do with the dysfunction of the group working on it. The wiki provides the structure for a project, but a group has to function appropriately in order for the wiki to be a success. Bad group dynamics will lead to a poorly designed page no matter what the benefits it offers. King and Cox mention the “collective bias” that can be offered by a wiki with a generalized group (Kathleen P. King, Thomas D Cox, 2011, p. 123) which also brings up the point that the information found within the wiki can be wrong. Putting misinformation out in a setting accessible to all can be a provoking issue for an instructor.

Overall I think wikis offer a exciting way for people in diverse settings and locations to interact. With proper oversight, most will be a good reflection of the group dynamic and work.

James A West, Margaret L West. (2009). Using Wikis for Online Collaboration. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Kathleen P. King, Thomas D Cox. (2011). The Professors Guide to Taming Technology. Charlottee: Information Age Publishing.

State Farm® - State of Disbelief (French Model)

I would absolutely agree that blogs can be a playground for badly researched comments all stated under the banner of opinion. The blog I mentioned in my initial post is a good example where a mother posted some thoughts that were just simply not well thought out. When confronted by the problems with her thoughts she backtracked an restated, clarifying her original post.
I have a tendency to put my foot in my mouth a lot. Blogging can either make that worse, or it can make it better because you learn by others mistakes and never post without thoroughly thinking it through.
Bad research would be much the same. Like the video below, some people can take any online posting as fact instead of researching on their own! This pokes fun at that, but it can be a significant problem.

Blogging: Pros and Cons for Adult Learners

Our discussions on adult learning begin with technology, and more specifically, blogging.  First let’s consider the definition

blog [blawg, blog]   noun
a Web site containing the writer's or group of writers' own experiences, observations, opinions, etc.,and often having images and links to other Web sites.

Origin: 
1995–2000;  shortening of Weblog

blog. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved September 11, 2013, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/blog

They key for application in adult learning is that blogs by nature contain the “opinions, viewpoints, or even narrations of their experiences.” (Santos, 2011) Blogs have become a new means of communication online that have replaced many other forms of messaging. What we really want to discuss however, are the pros and cons for the adult learner.

I think we all come to the classroom, whether face to face or online, with a preconceived idea about the setting and what we are allowed to express. Our past experiences have affected how we see and experience learning. Sometimes that means what happens in our classrooms can be limited by past formality. One benefit of blogging for adult learning would be the ease with which people can express their own opinions. Blogs by nature deal with opinion, and the seeming lack of structure or formality online are conducive to that relaxing of classroom inhibitions.  

Another benefit is accessibility. Everyone who has access to a computer and the Internet can have a voice, though accessibility can also be a problem for those with economic limitations or even issues of location.

One of the drawbacks of blogging for adults can also be based on past experiences with technology. If people are comfortable with technology, blogging can come easily. If they struggle because of bad learning experiences, adults might give up and not even choose to try a new concept. The learning curve for some adults can be also be considerable. One thing that has helped me deal with that learning curve is a conscious decision to stay current technologically. I have chosen to get involved with several social media sites simply to keep up with my teenagers and to understand what they are using. It’s great to have them help me when I struggle with something and it opens doors for conversations that we might not otherwise have. Shelbie Witte discusses this as she showed in her Talkback Project (Witte, 2007). Students interacted with adults on a blog site allowing for the transmission of learning for both sides, including the participation by a parent deployed overseas with their child in class.

Another drawback of blogging in general and the ability to express personal opinions with ease, is the fact that blogging can put one on a world stage. Most of the time blogging can be a personal outlet that while people know that their words are going out for the entire world to see, they don’t really think about the entire world seeing it. Recently one blogger expressed some controversial opinions on what she felt was a small audience of friends and family. (You can read that here) Someone shared her post and it went viral with thousands of views and thousands of comments some encouraging and some really taking her to task for her views. Her post spawned dozens of responses in other blogs (two of which you can read here and here). People definitely need to consider what they say before posting in a blog setting either in a learning environment or not. It is great that this blogger used her voice to express her opinion, but with the opportunity to use your voice can come others using theirs!

Overall I think blogs, particularly those used in adult learning settings, open doors for learning. People express themselves in ways they might not normally in a classroom setting and absorb information in ways that can be different and new.  What do you think?

Santos, A. N. (2011). Blogs As A Learning Space: Creating Text of Talks. Contemporary Issues in Education Research , 4 (6), 15-19.

Witte, S. (2007). "That's online writing not boring school writing": Writing with blogs and the Talkback Project. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy , 51 (2), 92-96.