WIKI ENVIRONMENT FOR VIRTUAL CLASSES: AN EXPERIENCE WITH PRIMARY SCHOOLS

Wiki-based collaboration has become evermore popular means of producing structured content in the Web 2.0 era. Growing on the previous experience central to the EDEN (Educazione Didattica per la E-Navigation) European project promoted by the authors, the impact of this form of e-learning system has been analyzed for a set of Italian state primary schools.
In the EDEN project a wiki-based collaboration system was chosen as our implementation of a “Virtual Class” environment in which web-based class “discussions” could be held. The peer-to-peer nature of a wiki platform places each member on an equal footing thus promoting contributions structured around one or more topics, unlike blogs which share similarities with a teacher in a physical classroom, or a forum which resembles a Q&A session.
A notable feature developed specifically for the EDEN project wiki platform is a highly scalable hierarchical registration-key procedure used to establish that wiki users are truly members of the project while ensuring at the same time the protection of their identity. In this system retracing user's actual identity, requires combining information held in part on the server and in part delegated to people physically in charge of class management. In this way personal id information does not reside on severs while the person in charge of managing users already familiar with their identities. This strict policy on data protection is integrated as part of the learning experience.
Furthermore a peer based assessment tool has been implemented and integrated together with a moderation system for content evaluation and user “karma” enhancement.
The focus of this paper is centered on the experience of classes in Italian state primary schools, encompassing the ages of 9-10 and occurring in the period between 2006 and 2008. The cases under study are differentiated principally by working methodology specifically in regard to the tutoring model chosen. In particular one case developed around a “direct tutoring” model in which it is the role of the tutor to strongly define the initial structure and limits of the wiki content thus effectively enacting something similar to a tightly confined class discussion.
The second case can be defined as a “loose tutoring” model and is characterized by a far less invasive approach on the part of the tutor figure, in which topics are allowed to follow their natural pattern of development.
The comparison of these two case studies shows some differences in the resulting content structure which can most likely be attributed to this difference in tutoring methodology. Notably, the direct tutoring model tends to produce the largest quantity of content which is the most structured and quite well interconnected. The loose tutoring model tends to produce content which is more spontaneous and may indicate a more fulfilling overall experience.