On Using Wiki as a Tool for Collaborative Online Blended Learning

Abstract

This chapter explores the use of the wiki and its role as a cognitive tool to promote interaction and collaborativelearning in higher education. The importance of the software to enable student created content, storage, and sharing of knowledge is reviewed. This chapter provides an evaluation of some of the affordances and constraints ofwikis to promote critical thinking within a blended learningcontext. It assesses their potential to facilitatecollaborative learning through community focused enquiryfor geographically separated students and nomadic learners. One particular focus of the chapter is the development of new digital literacies and how students present their written work in wikis. The chapter also examines group dynamics within collaborative learningenvironments drawing on the data from a study conducted at the University of Plymouth in 2007, using wikis in teacher education. Finally, the chapter highlights some recent key contributions to the developing discourse on social software in what has been termed ‘the architecture of participation.’