Evaluating Wiki as a tool to promote quality academic writing skills

Steve Wheeler (1) , Dawn Wheeler (1)

1 Faculty of Education

In this study we investigated undergraduate teacher trainees' use of wikis, focusing on the use of shared spaces to communicate ideas and generate course specific content. We explored how students, through such activities, were to able to improve their academic writing skills. We discuss writing as a social practice and discuss how wikis might promote better academic writing. With data derived from student discussion boards and a post-module e-mail questionnaire (N=35) our findings indicate that most students raised their skill level in writing as a result of using the wiki space. Collaborative writing was limited due to students' reluctance to change each others' work, but students appreciated the shared environment to discuss the course. Students reported their academic writing skills improved through use of the wiki.

Keywords: wikis; web 2.0; social networking; academic writing

Domains: Technology for Human Learning

Steve Wheeler, Dawn Wheeler. Evaluating Wiki as a tool to promote quality academic writing skills. Conference ICL2007, September 26 -28, 2007, 2007, Villach, Austria. 7 p. ⟨hal-00197280⟩