Abstract:

Global strategies and key multimodal technological tools for the 21st Century Digital Literacies are defined by The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), USA, 2021, published on its official website https://ncte.org/. According to the document, Wiki is proved to be one of the major social, pedagogical, and collaborative skills for language learning and acquisition within digital, blended (hybrid), and virtual learning environments. It says: “Wiki refers to software that fosters collaboration and communication online. Wikis enable students to create, comment upon, and revise collaborative projects. One of the most prominent is Wikipedia...which currently has 7.9 million articles in 253 languages"[1]. But still, in our opinion, wiki has not attracted much researchers’ attention and is not widely applied in pedagogical practice.

So, the article introduces and compares different notions of the term "wiki” as “collaborative didactics", observes some recent literature on its applications.
The author explains the purpose of the method and represents collaborative wiki didactics as one of the universal and efficient language learning models in the sphere of blended (or hybrid) learning, and not only. The article describes in general how to apply it for ESL, ESP, and TS teaching at a higher education level. The author considers and revises particular and universal sides of this method, relying on her over 10 years' practical experience of wiki LMS-based projects and courses design, creation and implementation together with students in Linguistics, TS, and in non - linguistic specialties.

In order to draw general conclusions about the appropriateness and usefulness of collaborative wiki didactics, it is also very important to briefly describe the main features of “wiki technology” as IT software. It exists in two options: as an integrated wiki platform (website or LMS) or as a modular construction: selection of apps and Cloud. All variants are reliable, versatile, and available for courses and project design in cooperation with students.

In addition to the above, the article briefly reviews formation of main wiki didactical principles within some key pedagogical concepts and models. The most relevant, in our opinion, could be the works by M.Warshauer and R.Korn; M.Cubric; A.Mayer, R.Millwood, S.Burgstahler, G.Siemens, D.Gasevic, S. Dawns.
We are framed with the above researchers because, unfortunately, it is impossible to review all important western theories and practices that contributed to modern distance and hybrid learning. It has come a long way since learning styles by D.A.Kolb through universal design for learning by D.Rose and A.Mayer, and, lately, theory of Connectivism in digital age and MOOCs by G.Siemens and S.Dawns. There are many more scientists and brilliant teachers who are worth to be mentioned in connection to the topic.

The article and the review can be recommended for the wide range of technology-savvy educators, especially ESP/ESL/TS teachers, searching for useful, universal, and collaborative teaching methods, and who are ready to apply efficient internet tools such as wiki, for blended(hybrid) and distance learning at the university level.

1. 21st-Century Literacies.A Policy Research Brief produced by the National Council of Teachers of English: NCTE,8 P. – p.4// https://cdn.ncte.org/nctefiles/resources/positions/chron1107researchbrief.pdf/ Reference 2021

Keywords:

Wiki, didactics, language learning, e-learning, blended learning, connectivism, digital literacies, collaborative learning.