THE PEDAGOGICAL USE OF WIKIS IN WEB 2.0: PRELIMINARY RESULTS OF A RESEARCH PROJECT WITH COLLABORATIVE LEARNING IN PRIMARY EDUCATION

The pedagogical use of modern digital technologies is a main concern of the contermporary primary school education. Through the application of ICT and web 2.0 communication cooperative learning and creative interaction among users is encouraged. The active participation of students while developing material along with the teacher and learning through inquiry make students creators and not mere recipients. The educational application of the wikis presents a great interest as it contributes to the joint construction of knowledge.

The objective of this work is to study the development of an experiential project through the web 2.0 technology in primary education. The main research question is whether and how the primary school pupils take advantage of the potentials of wikis, help implement them in the context of teamwork teaching, project method, while taking on experiential activities and integrating tools of formative and final evaluation.

The action was implemented to second grade students class of an elementary school in Athens as part of a cross-curricular project. It was also extended through the weekly school curriculum and it explored the development of writing materials from the prehistoric times until today. In particular it explored the nature and use of different surfaces and writing inks in everyday life and the various ways writing was depicted into works of art, paintings and books with references the artist and the era. The analysis of the material and the data entry took place in a class using specific web addresses of the groups that were available for further processing outside the classroom. Students working as a team dealt with the questions raised and gradually recorded the results of their research, despite the limitations posed by the students’ young age.

The assessment of the action proved that the implementation of the work plan using wiki initially contributed to the development of the social skills of the users through cooperation, the development of critical thinking and metacognitive skills as wells their ICT skills.