Preconvention Institutes: Promoting CALL Best Practices

Wikis: Creating Collaborative Learning Spaces

Organizing and facilitating a Preconvention Institute (PCI) becomes a successful endeavor when collaboration propels the process and becomes the primary focus. “Wikis: Creating Collaborative Learning Spaces” provided a learning experience intertwined with collaborative facilitation and group interaction throughout the process while incorporating a theme of how technology, specifically wikis, supports the language learning process through these cooperative efforts.

Our collaborative team comprised five experienced professionals: Sandy Wagner, Assistant Professor at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, California, USA; Christine Bauer-Ramazani, Instructor and Teacher Trainer at Saint Michael’s College, Vermont, USA; Robert “Skip” Gole, Adjunct Professor, Montgomery College, Maryland, USA; Maria Tomeho-Palermino, Senior Lecturer, Center for English Language and Orientation Programs, Boston University, Massachusetts, USA; Jack Watson, Senior Administrator/Facilitator at University of New Brunswick English Language Programme, New Brunswick, Canada.

Sixteen participants attended the 4-hour morning workshop held on 20 March 2013, coming from all parts of the United States, China, the Middle East, and Canada. Sample collaborative activities introduced and integrated ways the wiki environment promotes collaboration and moving from face-to-face to online collaboration. A “getting to know you” activity required participants to respond to a survey using PollEverywhere.com and introduce themselves based on their responses to a question about ways they collaborate in their classrooms. Participants then formed groups to explore other wiki sites and report back to all in the workshop on collaborative and interactive features they might use in their teaching environments. A discussion ensued incorporating Popplet, an online brainstorming tool that was embedded in the wiki site.

Support for collaboration is evident from the research, especially as it applies to our ESL learners. Vygotskyian theory stresses the fundamental role of social interaction in the development of cognition. Research concludes that collaborative learning “fosters the development of critical thinking through discussion, clarification of ideas, and evaluation of others’ ideas.” (Gokhale, 1995). Additionally, Kessler and Bikowski (2010) state that “collaboration leads to a sense of ownership that encourages extensive utilization of the learning space”  (p. 55).

Wikis offer support for promoting collaborative learning. According to Godwin-Jones (2003), Wikis provide a kind of shared notebook in which all participants may write, edit, compile and catalog information, negotiate, and perform myriad language functions in an ‘intensively collaborative’ context.

With the advantages of collaborative and cooperative learning at its core, the workshop provided learners with experiential activities where they applied learning in the creation of personal wiki sites, incorporating features and activities that promote the collaborative process. An additional component involved group discussions and interactions. A wiki showcase provided a wrap-up of the session as all participants accessed and explored wikis others had created and left feedback on a digital form, created and embedded by each participant on their wiki site. The PCI can be viewed here.

References

Gokhale, A. (1995). Collaborative learning enhances critical thinking. Journal of Technology Education, 7(1). Retrieved from http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JTE/v7n1/gokhale.jte-v7n1.html

Godwin-Jones, R. (2003). Blogs and wikis: Environments for on-line collaboration. Language Learning & Technology, 7(2), 12–16. Retrieved from http://llt.msu.edu/vol7num2/pdf/emerging.pdf

Kessler, G., & Bikowski, D. (2010). Developing collaborative autonomous learning abilities in computer mediated language learning: Attention to meaning among students in wiki space. Computer Assisted Language Learning 23,(1), 41–58.

Sandy Wagner is Assistant Professor at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center. She has designed and facilitated numerous online courses for second language learning and currently facilitates PP103: Teaching Reading and Writing Online for TESOL’s Principles and Practices of Online Teaching Certificate Program. She is also a CALL-IS past chair. Sandy enjoys the beauty of living on California's Central Coast and spends most of her free time hiking, camping, and just being outside. She enjoys reading, gourmet cooking, and local art fairs.

Christine Bauer-Ramazani is an instructor and teacher trainer at Saint Michael’s College in Vermont, USA. She cofounded the Electronic Village Online (EVO) for the CALL-Interest Section and has authored and taught online courses for TESOL and Saint Michael’s College, including a graduate course Computer-Assisted Language Learning Online, which is in its 13th year. Christine enjoys visiting friends and family in Germany and Iran and playing tennis, kayaking, bicycling, hiking, x-c skiing, snowshoeing, and baking German cakes in her free time.