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Archive:Learning to learn a wiki way

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Strategic planning for the project

Strategic planning is about identifying the context of the project(intellectual, technological, economic, social, etc.), setting the goals for the project, identifying objectives needed to achieved these goals, identifying who will be involved in the project and identifying what resources the project will need.

Why is the Learning to learn a wiki way project needed?

Learning using wikis is a new and evolving social practice. If Wikiversity is to succeed then we need to learn how to use wikis for learning. This project aims to be an exemplar of how a wiki can be used for learning and to refine, develop and expand on this social practice.

This project depends on the participation of its visitors to be successful. So why not join us and share your thoughts by answering the following question?
Why I want to join this learning project?

How could the Learning to learn a wiki way project be conducted?

I would like to propose that this project becomes a piece of Participatory action research (PAR), a form of action research. PAR is a process that occurs when the actions a group take to empower themselves through creating, modifying or developing a social practice are informed by critical reflection - a process which then prompts further development of the social practice. PAR comprises four elements; participation, social practice or action, critical reflection and empowerment. PAR is an approach to developing or changing social practices. Social practice can be defined as recurring activities involving people working together. In a learning context this includes a huge range of practices ranges from reading (the interaction of reader and author), self study or creating a study guide to implementing national and international educational policies via learning in groups, workplace learning, curriculum development and learning with in an educational institution. However not all social practices are appropriate as the subject of PAR. This is because all the people involved in PAR should be participants. To be a participant in PAR means taking part in the planning and decision making process as well as specific tasks. In an educational situation this implies learners becoming learning facilitators and the subjects of research becoming active researchers. Participation in PAR includes the choice of what social practice should be investigated. The action or intervention taken to create, develop or modify 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 actions or interventions that the participants make. This analysis is used to inform decisions on what future actions or interventions need to be taken to develop the social practice further. This whole process needs to result in the empowerment of all those involved. Crucially it should also provide support for others to empower themselves from the lessons learned during the Participatory Action Research.

The first step is to refine and clarify the aim of the project

This should involve some form of collective goal setting, setting and prioritiesing specific objectives, a preliminary review of the relevant literature.

The second step is to plan a set of interventions

The use of the term intervention is used because it implies that some form of action will be taken as in Participatory Action Research (PAR). The very act of editing these project pages is an intervention. Creating a project plan is another example, creating and modifying learning materials is yet another example of an intervention, even just reading these pages could be seen as an intervention. Specifically for this project we need to decide between us what particular interventions we want to make. There are a number of methods of doing this. One approach is for someone to make edits to the project and the other members of the project to re-edit these. This process continues until a consensus is reached. Another approach is for someone to layout a proposal for an intervention such as creating a guide to action research and see if the other members will join in with this intervention. Yet another method would be to reach a consensus within the group on what interventions need to be made and then plan these collectively. I hope that this project will explore and discover various methods for interventions and how to plan them.

So why is the term intervention used rather than project activity? It is difficult to avoid implicit assumptions, bias and prejudices in any action we take. The word "intervention" implies that the actions taken aren't neutral that they come from outside the given situation that their is some kind of power relationship in place. By using the word "intervention" rather than "action" we are remind ourselves of this. In an attempt to overcome the problems of non neutral actions PAR encourages the use of critical analysis of the subjective, political, economic, social and cultural context of all the interventions in the project.

The third step is to implement these interventions

The fourth step is to asses and evaluate the consequences of these interventions

The Fifth step is to repeat the cycle

What does the Learning to learn a wiki way project hope to achieve?

  • Identify and develop methods of recruiting participants to a learning project
  • Identify and develop methods of valuing the skills, knowledge and attitudes of all participants
  • Identify and develop ways of supporting participants in becoming actively engaged with the Wikiversity.
  • Develop effective methods of collaborative learning
  • Identify and develop methods of planning learning on a wiki
  • Identify and develop a variety of appropriate learning activities and materials
  • Identify and develop methods of managing learning
  • Identify and develop a range of appropriate feedback and assessment techniques
  • Identify and develop methods of evaluating the process, planning, and implementation of the project
  • Reflect critically on your own practice as a participant at Wikiversity
  • Reflect critically on the role of Wikiversity
This learning project will only work if it meets the needs of its participants. You can help archive this by answering the following question:
What specific outcomes do I want from this learning project?

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 Wikiversity community will be asked if they wish to contribute.

Active participants

When will this project take place and how long will it take?

This is an open ended project. However it is important that it builds some momentum so a time line will be developed. It is hoped the project will get going during December 2006.


Tactical planning for the project

Tactical planning is about identifying methods of archiving the objectives identified in the strategic plan. In effect it is changing strategic questions like "Why is this project needed?" to "How can we create this project?", or "Who is involved in this project?" to "How will they be involved in the project?" or "What doses the project hope to archive?" to "How will the project archive these objectives?".

How can the project recruit and keep active participants?

So far participants have either found the project themselves or been invited by other members. It would be useful to find out how participants become active members of other learning projects on wikiversity and beyond.

To start this investigation please could you answer the question:
Why did you become an active participant of a (learning) project and how did you find out about it?

How will the project be conducted?

  • 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

How will we refine the scope of the social practice we want to investigate?

Project resources

Even though wiki learning is a new field there are plenty of examples and reports on the subject. It would be helpfully to gather a list of these resources and provide reviews or critiques with reference to this project. Mystictim 12:39, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

World Wide Web

Wikiversity

Wikipedia

Websites

Blogs

Project artifacts

As the project progresses it will generate content for Wikiverstiy. If the content is short it should be entered below. When chunks of content become large enough they should be transfered to thier own page and a link added below.

Group reflective blog for learning to learn a wiki way

This is a subpage and is intended to be the collective blog for this project. Rather than write to this subpage directly it is a composite page of individual's learning blog pages from the project participants. You can find out more and add your learning blog at the Group reflective blog for learning to learn a wiki way .

Planning the project

The central problem as I see it is how do we create active learning communities at Wikiversity. I think that their are numerous solutions to this problem. I would like to explore using Participatory Action Research (PAR) as a method of finding some of these solutions. I’ve never carried out any PAR before so this will be a learning journey for me. The first step is to recruit participants for the project and find out why they want to join the project and what they want from the project. This will help to clarify the aims and objectives of the project. Please feel free to add your reasons for joining the project and what you hope to get out of the project under the headings listed below. Mystictim 00:26, 28 November 2006 (UTC) Which page dose this change

Why I want to join this learning project?

  • I find the Wikiversity a very exiting project and want to find out how to use it to develop learning projects in the areas of education, philosophy and computer applications. Mystictim 00:26, 28 November 2006 (UTC)
  • I agree with you, Mystictim, that one of the central things we need to do in Wikiversity is to explore and identify how learning is to be provided for in Wikiversity (as distinct from providing educational material which can be used for autonomous self-study). I think it is a potentially very powerful learning project to carry out within a framework of (participatory) action research - as this is also the focus of my own research (see my blog and wiki). I think I have something to contribute here, but I also have a lot to learn - hopefully we will explore, reflexively, what it means to participate in this space and what our reflections tell us about the nature of this space and what can become of it. This whole project (ie Wikiversity) is a deeply exciting one, and this particular learning project/community has the potential to become a microcosm of the whole, and a resource for all. Cormaggio talk 16:03, 28 November 2006 (UTC)
  • A "Learning to learn a wiki way" learning/research project is important because of its subject matter, but it is also relevant to the larger issue of establishing a role for research within Wikiversity. At Wikimania this past Summer Jimmy Wales announced the launch of Wikiversity and said, "..... the idea here is to also host learning communities, so people who are actually trying to learn, actually have a place to come and interact and help each other figure out how to learn things. We're also going to be hosting and fostering research into how these kinds of things can be used more effectively." (source) The Wikiversity community has been instructed by the Board: "..... guidelines should be developped, *in particular* with regards to collaborative research. We would hope that these guidelines are as much as possible developped on the beta site (in particular collaborative research), so that all languages share a common goal and a few common non negociable rules." (source). If we actually had "Learning to learn a wiki way" as an active research project it would provide an example of how research can be done at Wikiversity and provide us with something to point to when the progress and status of the Wikiversity project is reviewed at the end of the first six months. --JWSchmidt 17:10, 28 November 2006 (UTC)
  • I'm actually certified in teaching social studies, but technology is my hobby and until I find a teaching position, it's also my current job. Wikiversity is interesting to me because it blends both technology and education and I can do it within social studies...so for me it's a no-brainer. Add to that the fact that I grew up with the internet coming to strength and I'm sure it will be around for quite some time. Participating in wiki is a way to stay current for my future students. --Kfitton 03:09, 29 November 2006 (UTC)
  • I'm exploring ways to involve formal learning organisations and national curriculums and standards into the wikiversity... early days, lots to think about. Apart from that, I'm just generally interested in free and open learning and how to formally credit that with formal educational qualification...--Leighblackall 09:51, 30 November 2006 (UTC)
  • I'm involved in introducing networked learning into business and management education and look to Wikiversity as a fantastic social experiment from which to gain inspiration and to which to direct sceptical onlookers. The audience I serve are extremely sceptical of networked learning, and will probably look at Wikiversity in complete bafflement. There are some crushing barriers we face from concerns within this audience (clients, academics of the slighly older generation) of poor tech-literacy, the turn-off from impeneratrable 'geek' languages, generation (Y) and gender issues, intellectual property issues. However, if I haven't already done so via this post, I'm very interested to join a PAR project. My other interest is as a philosopher, so I'm keen to examine on what basis we make claims in this and in other talk pages. Executivezen 20:49, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

What specific outcomes do I want from this learning project?

  • I hope to develop my skills as an online learning facilitator and to eventually earn a living from this activity. Mystictim 00:26, 28 November 2006 (UTC)
  • I also hope to develop my own skills as a researcher, an educator and a reflective practitioner - but I also hope that participating in this project can really crystallise for me and others what learning means within a wiki and how it is provided for - something that is still quite fuzzy in my mind, after over two years of thinking and writing about the subject. Cormaggio talk 16:03, 28 November 2006 (UTC)
  • I'd like to improve my skills and awareness of mediawiki editing, and discuss opportunities to interact wikiversity activity with activities in formal educational organisations..--Leighblackall 09:53, 30 November 2006 (UTC)
  • I'm also hoping that the MobilEd initiative will work in with Wikiversity.--Leighblackall 09:55, 30 November 2006 (UTC)
  • This is great! My outcomes are to prepare me/my thinking for a PhD in deconstructivist philosophy of education, courtesy of the discussion. As well as to aid my professional work as a learning technologist. Executivezen 20:54, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
  • I'd like to use this project to discuss specific topics in how to improve learning in a wiki environment and then implement those ideas in the content areas that I am working on. I see a lot of potential for the wiki model of learning, but it is not yet clear to me how to structure lessons that encourage participation and take full advantage of the interactive nature of a wiki.--mikeu 13:24, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

Why did you become an active participant of a (learning) project and how did you find out about it?

  • I've become an active participant in this learning project because I need a set of tools for creating online learning projects. Part of my motivation for this is that I would like to earn a living as an online learning facilitator. A stronger motivation for me is that this specific project and the Wikiversity in general matches many of my beliefs and desires. Doing social useful work is an important value for me. It provides a space were I can put my skills and knowledge to good use. I arrived here by a round about journey. I discovered Wikibooks earlier this year when I was actively searching for collaborative projects around creating learning materials. I found the discussion about deleting Wikiversity and the proposal to establish a separate project by accident. From time to time I'd come back to check the progress of establishing Wikiverstiy as a separate project. I signed up in August and setup this project in September. Mystictim 19:27, 16 December 2006 (UTC)
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