Archive:Learning to learn a wiki way

This is a proposed project to be conducted as a piece of Participatory action research (PAR). Participatory action research is when the actions a group take to empower themselves by changing or developing a social practice are informed by critical reflection - a process which then prompts further development of their practice.

This comprises four elements; participation, social action or practice, critical reflection and empowerment. PAR is an approach to developing or changing a social practice. Social practice can be defined as recurring activities that involve groups of people working together. In a learning context this ranges from reading (the interaction of reader and author) to implementing national and international educational policies via self study, learning groups, workplace learning or educational institutions. However not all social practices can be the subject of PAR. This is because all the people involved in PAR should be participants. They should also be part of the planning and decision making process. In the context of education this means that the learners need to become learning facilitators and that the subjects of the research should become the active researchers. Participation extends to the choice of what social practice should be subjected to PAR. The action taken to develop or create the chosen social practice needs to be informed by critical reflection. This means looking at the historical, political, cultural, economic, geographic and other contexts of the social practice before and after any interventions by the participants. This analysis is used to inform what further action needs to be taken to develop the social practice further. Finally this whole processor needs to result in the empowerment of all those involved. Further it should provide support for others to empower themselves from the lessons learnd during the Participatory Action Research.

Why is this project needed?

The mission of Wikiversity is to make educational content accessible, in a curriculum framework, which includes multimedia and which tracks individual learning progress and organizes material for the individual so they progress in the subject. This project aims to explore methods of creating effective multimedia learning programs.

What are the objective this project hopes to achieve?

• The project aims to produce an exemplar for a learning project
• Develop methods of collaboration
• Improve the Wikipedia article Participatory action research.

Who will be involved in this project?

This project is open to everyone (as, indeed, it is the central question which Wikiversity participants hope to answer through their work). As a tactic to move this project forward, active members of the community will be asked if they wish to contribute.

How long will this project take?

This is an open ended project. However it is important that it builds some momentum so a time line will be developed. The project is hoped to get going by November 2006.

How will this project be conducted?

• The first step is for the group to make a preliminary identification of the social practice they want to investigate.
  • If we are introspective, we could select a common wiki social practice such as how sysops are selected.
• The second step is to plan a set of interventions.
• The third step is to implement these interventions.
• The fourth step is to evaluate the consequences of these interventions.

The cycle is then repeated by redefining the social practice in the light of the interventions.

What needs to be done?

• Recruit participants
• Discuss methodology
• Refine the initial outline of this learning project
• Plan what changes need to be made to improve this learning project
• Implement these changes
• Evaluate the outcomes of these changes

Active participants

• Mystictim
• Cormaggio 16:08, 7 October 2006 (UTC)
• --Leighblackall 07:43, 25 October 2006 (UTC)
• Daanschr 13:41, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

See also

• Wikiversity:Wiki as a tool for learning