Using Wikis to Develop Teachers’ Content and Technology Knowledge

• In Event: Technology as a Course Innovation: Insights From Diverse, Urban Preservice Teacher Education Programs

Abstract

As classrooms become better equipped with technology and as children enter school as technology natives, teachers need to develop a wide range of technological competencies in order to remain current and prepare students to use new technologies.

To ensure expertise in educational technology, our School of Education as developed a group of technological competencies that all students must demonstrate before graduation. As literacy education professors, we embraced this challenge to push ourselves and students to meaningfully and purposely integrate technology into our courses. This presentation describes and analyzes the impact of our integration of an author study wiki into a graduate course in Children’s Literature.

Our design of the author study wiki project is grounded in the evolving definitions of 21st century literacy (NCTE 2008). Web 2.0 moves beyond technology as tools to fundamentally change different patterns of knowledge construction and communication, argues Beach, et al. (2011) and is transforming literacy practices and ELA instruction.
The creation of wikis offers opportunities for the creation of multimodal, interactive, hyperlinked texts. It also fosters collaboration and a sense of purpose beyond the classroom (Richardson, 2009).
We also believe that our students will be more effective teachers if they have first hand experience with these evolving literacies and wrestle themselves with the challenges and opportunities inherent in creating an interactive wiki.


In this case study report, we explore the catalysts for the wiki project (hybrid course development, technology competencies requirement,), and the assignment and integration of technology competencies. This project, the creation of an interactive wiki devoted to one children’s book author, requires students to research information (biographical and critical) about the author, read and annotate the author’s work, and develop lesson and unit ideas for those work. Additionally, students are asked to integrate other modalities (such as pictures, video, graphics, sound) to demonstrate their own understanding the author’s works and to engage the reader. The wiki should be user friendly, graphically pleasing, be capable of being exported to classmates for their use in their classrooms. Finally, students are invited to add resources and understanding to each other’s wikis so that the knowledge is shared and continually co-constructed.

Data from student work samples are analyzed to look at students’ mastery of both technology competencies and content knowledge about children’s literature and appropriate pedagogy. Technology competencies looked for include abilities in research, communication, media, and presentation. In content knowledge we look for depth of knowledge about the author, the texts, and literary interpretation, ability to evaluate texts for use in a range of roles for children, and ability to share information in an engaging and interactive way. Data from student feedback about the assignment and the transfer to their classrooms is also reported.

Preliminary results of the this work demonstrate that teachers’ technological skills, content knowledge, and ability meaningfully integrate the two, are increased when they are guided through an activity that is both technologically challenging as well as rich in content and field applicability.

Authors

• Jenny Tuten, Hunter College - CUNY

• Deborah Ann Jensen, Hunter College - CUNY