PILOT EXPERIENCE OF USING A WIKI FOR LEARNING AND COMMUNICATING AMONG SENIOR STUDENTS

Background

During the last decade the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has increased enormously and new ways of understanding the Internet have arisen. Different virtual social networks or publishing and working tools are enabling an evolution of the web to a new stage where users play the most important role. The result of this evolution is called web 2.0

Motivation

The Jaume I University in Castellon (Spain) has had a formal model for senior education for more than 10 years. This model is called Seniors Citizens’ University (SCU) and currently 753 students are enrolled on this programme. The classes take place on the city campus and also in five different rural delegations.

Senior learners (55+) have a different set of requirements to acquire knowledge from younger people, which should be taken into consideration. They also have different needs when they want to obtain certain skills related to new technologies.

There is a strong need for students from distant locations to make contact with other people. They live far away enough to be looking for new ways of communication, beyond physical meetings. In addition, students in rural delegations do not feel fully integrated in the university as they only participate in projects with students from their own area. A new approach is required to integrate senior learners from all the locations to create a virtual community.

This paper presents a pilot experience where senior students made their first contact with web 2.0. The aim of the test was to study the usefulness of web 2.0 tools, such as Wikis, as learning tools while senior learners became active users of these new web technologies.

Pilot course

Two pilot groups, each of 12 students, were created. A full training intervention was offered from the outset (relevance of web 2.0, use of wiki, how to work collaboratively, etc.)

A widely used Wiki engine was installed in the SCU web site. It was used as a collaborative tool to create content and share information among the learners. With this method, users made a seamless transition to a friendly familiar environment. This approach proved to be very helpful.

The activities and research were framed in the “activeICT” Grundtvig learning partnership, supported by the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commission.

Results

An initial analysis of the common techniques for working on a Wiki was carried out. In addition, a report was prepared on the first hurdles the students encountered. With this information, we considered a set of strategies to deal with the most common situations, the most suitable of which were applied to each individual student.

This approach based on proactive teaching has been shown to be highly advantageous for senior learners. Common Wiki problems were addressed from the first lesson. Difficulties appearing with early users were also dealt with to avoid reoccurrence among other students at later stages.

A set of indicators was defined to measure the experience. With this data, we were able to gradually adapt the contents and the schedule over the course. These indicators also helped to analyse the quality of the experience by discovering weak points for improvement and also emphasising strong opportunities to be offered to new students.