Lesson Plan: Wiki Project Group 1

Wiki Project Lesson Plan – Group 1

Lesson Plan – Wiki Project
Group 1: Adam Cavotta, Miriam Maske and Sam Stichter

EDLT 573 Technology & Critical Thinking - Spring 2010

Table of Contents

1. Instructional Goal Statement
2. Theoretical Framework
3. Target Audience
4. National Education Technology Standards (NETS)
5. Instructional Objectives
6. Prerequisite Skills
7. Technology Resources
8. Instructional Procedure
a. Introduction
b. Main Activity
c. Conclusion
9. Assessment Procedure

Instructional Goal Statement

The purpose of this tutorial is to showcase wiki tools (PBWorks) and
provide some guidance for how to transform the use of this technology
into classroom activities that support model building and critical
thinking skills.

Theoretical Framework

The use of a wiki as a mindtool within this assignment will foster
critical thinking by allowing students to work together in gathering
important information to develop change in their community.
According to Jonassen (2006), for hypermedia to be an effective
learning tool the learner must think of hypermedia not as a source of
knowledge to learn from, but instead as a mindtool to construct and
learn with (pp. 186). And according to Jonassen, “students learn more
by constructing instructional materials than by studying them.”

Within this wiki assignment, students will be constructing the
knowledge they gather and then placing that information within the
wiki to share with other learners/team members. By using the wiki,
also considered to be hypermedia, the students are “actively engaged

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in designing knowledge rather than in interpreting and encoding it (pp.
187).” By allowing the student to become the designers of their own
communities, they will be able to foster critical thinking and knowledge
base information while collaborating with other designers within their
learning communities.

This mindtool can be used by k-20 teachers for modeling that
encourages collaboration and construction of knowledge in an
authentic socially relevant context.

According to Jonassen, “Hypermedia is a powerful tool for engaging
and supporting knowledge construction (pp. 187).”

The wiki will allow for collaborative team work where students will be
able to write, revise, update, upload, and contribute information they
have researched and gathered. This will also allow the teacher to
monitor the progress of each team and participation from individual
members. Parents can also access the wiki to see their child’s work in
action. According to Solomon and Schrum (2007), “students are
engaged in sharing, communicating, and exchanging ideas on a larger
scale and see permanency to their words that a composition paper can
never equal.” They also add that students are more motivated to learn
how to write responsibly, accurately, clearly, and inoffensively (pp.
81).

References:

Jonassen, D.H. (2006). Modeling with mindtools: Mindtools for
conceptual change (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ; Columbus, OH:
Pearson, Merrill Prentice Hall.

Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2007). Web 2.0: New tools, new schools
(1st ed.). Eugene, OR; Washington, DC: International Society for
Technology in Education (ISTE).

Target Audience

K - 20 teachers that will be implementing technology into the
curriculum. The tool itself will be used with K - 20 students. The target
audience may include face-to-face and online participants, however
some modification would be required to translate the lesson into a fully
online format. Although the lesson can be modified for different
subject areas, the most common application would be for the subjects
of Social Studies, Science and English. Also, while this lesson can be

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adapted for use with younger students (K - 3) the example provided
would be directly applicable to Grades 4 - 20 with little modification or
instructor intervention.

National Education Technology Standards (NETS)

Based on NETS, the following standards are satisfied through this
lesson:

NETS In this lesson, students...
Creativity and Innovation Work in groups to produce wiki entries
Students demonstrate creative thinking, that synthesize research and opinions
construct knowledge, and develop gathered from academic work, the Web
innovative products and processes using and personal accounts (interviews) to
technology. Students: propose a new recycling program for their
community.
a. apply existing knowledge to
generate new ideas, products, or
processes.
b. create original works as a means
of personal or group expression.
c. use models and simulations to
explore complex systems and
issues.
d. identify trends and forecast
possibilities.
Communication and Collaboration Utilize the Wiki to write collaboratively,
Students use digital media and post comments to assist other groups in
environments to communicate and work clarifying their message. In addition to
collaboratively, including at a distance, to published works, students are encouraged
support individual learning and contribute to reach out to their families and
to the learning of others. Students: communities for sources of information.
Once the project is complete the results
a. interact, collaborate, and publish are shared with a larger public community
with peers, experts, or others in a press conference style presentation.
employing a variety of digital
environments and media.
b. communicate information and
ideas effectively to multiple
audiences using a variety of media
and formats.
c. develop cultural understanding
and global awareness by engaging
with learners of other cultures.
d. contribute to project teams to
produce original works or solve
problems.

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Research and Information Fluency Students conduct research using the Web
Students apply digital tools to gather, and synthesize the results of their
evaluate, and use information. Students: research in their Wiki posts, choosing
resources that both confirm and refute
a. plan strategies to guide inquiry. their point of view in order to form a well-
structured persuasive argument.
b. locate, organize, analyze,
evaluate, synthesize, and ethically
use information from a variety of
sources and media.
c. evaluate and select information
sources and digital tools based on
the appropriateness to specific
tasks.
d. process data and report results.
Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, During the planning stages, students are
and Decision Making prompted to define significant questions
Students use critical thinking skills to plan and the task that are required in order to
and conduct research, manage projects, address these concerns.
solve problems, and make informed
decisions using appropriate digital tools
and resources. Students:

a. identify and define authentic
problems and significant questions
for investigation.
b. plan and manage activities to
develop a solution or complete a
project.
c. collect and analyze data to identify
solutions and/or make informed
decisions.
d. use multiple processes and diverse
perspectives to explore alternative
solutions.
Digital Citizenship Produce an end-product that will be
Students understand human, cultural, shared with the community and use
and societal issues related to technology community knowledge and resources as a
and practice legal and ethical behavior. basis for evidence that supports their job
Students: of creating legislative proposals for a
recycling program in their community.
a. advocate and practice safe, legal,
and responsible use of information
and technology.
b. exhibit a positive attitude toward
using technology that supports
collaboration, learning, and
productivity.
c. demonstrate personal

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responsibility for lifelong learning.
d. exhibit leadership for digital
citizenship.
Technology Operations and Concepts Draft text-based, video, audio and image
Students demonstrate a sound content using Wiki technology and
understanding of technology concepts, understand how to create links to other
systems, and operations. Students: sources of information, including internal
links to Wiki documents as well as
a. understand and use technology embedable and linkable content from
systems. other locations on the Web.
b. select and use applications
effectively and productively.
c. troubleshoot systems and
applications.
d. transfer current knowledge to
learning of new technologies.

Instructional Objectives
Based on Bloom’s taxonomy write the instructional objectives of your
lesson identifying level(s) of learning.

Once teachers have completed the tutorial, they will be able to employ
the follow set of instructional objectives:

• The students will create a wiki that recognizes the important
information needed in the form of text, audio, and video
production.
• Based on research and interviews, the students will be able to
summarize and explain information to included in the wiki pages.
• The students will also be able to plan and organize the wiki
through the use of topics/subgroups.
• Using a teacher-provided rubric, the students will be able to
utilize established criteria to evaluate and critique their individual
performance on the project and the performance of their peers.

Prerequisite Skills

Basic computer composition skills (understand how to draft a
document using a Word processor)
Basic reading skills
Ability to use a Web browser
Basic research skills (including use of Web-based resources)

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Technology Resources

Access to computer
Internet connection
Web browser
Account on PBWorks
Email Account required (for teacher and participants)

Instructional Procedure

Introduction

The purpose of this lesson plan is to provide teachers with a basic
structure for how to use a wiki space for a collaborative class
assignment. The assignment will incorporate cooperative, inquiry, and
problem based learning activities. Different levels of scaffolding for
projects will be discussed as well as methods used by students to link
associated content to create connections to factual references and
opinions. In addition, teachers will learn how to organize working
groups within the wikispace in order to optimize interaction among
students.

As part of this tutorial, several instructional videos will be used in
order to train teachers about how to perform procedures within the
PBWorks program in order to accomplish the design and instructional
objectives of this lesson.

Main Activity

This lesson employs a problem-based instructional design model where
students will be asked to draft a legislative proposal to implement a
more robust recycling program in their community.

Activities in the lesson will be conducted through the following phases:

1. Introduction to the problem

Students will be provided with a brief introduction to the
problem, which may detail some facts and opinions about the
issue as well as a description of the process that follows. The
driving principle behind this phase is to make students aware of
what needs to be done and spur interest in the subject.

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2. Division of labor

The essential purpose of this phase is to identify the tasks that
need to be completed and find and equitable division of labor
among the class in order to accomplish the tasks. Instructor
support will vary for this phases as needed depending on the
level of knowledge and skills of the students. For example, the
instructor may provided tasks and groups to the students as
examples and then ask for input about additional task and/or
groups that are needed. Or instructors can leave the entire
process up to the students to form groups on their own. In this
context, students may form groups such as budget communities,
facilities and planning groups and public information teams. As a
result of this process, groups will be formed and objectives for
each group, including the overall tasks that need to be
accomplished, will be established.

3. Research and collaboration

Once the problem has been identified and students have been
charged to accomplish specific objectives, the students will need
to collaborate with other groups to determine where shared
interests may be at stake. Also, the process of research will
begin, drawling from academic resources, Web resources and
personal experiences (interviews with family and the
community). Again, depending on the level of knowledge and
skills of the students, instructors can provide more or less
structure and scaffold the development of research activities.
One example may be to draft a Webquest for less skilled
students in order to make resources available for them to
research, whereas more advanced students will look for sources
of information on their own. While it is important to include
scholarly and empirical research studies to support this
endeavor, the formation of policy is not solely determined by
facts, but rather the interaction between facts and opinions.
Student research would focus in these areas and students will be
asked to provide a balance between these two sources of
information. In addition, a major objective of this phases is to
provide support for a point-of-view with a balanced argument
that acknowledges multiple perspectives on the topic. Students
should research not only the perspective they support, but also
acknowledge and seek out other points of view.

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4. Writing

In this phase students work in their respective groups to
synthesize the research conducted in the previous step in order
to develop a well-formed persuasive argument endorsing their
plan for recycling in the community. The primary purpose of this
activity is to synthesize, distill and organize information from
sources in such as way as to not adopt the voice or language of
the cited text, but to translate the information into a common
voice that would provide enough detail to the reader that the
written work alone would be sufficient to communicate this
cohesive message. While this activity is primarily text-based
composition, other sources such as pictures, audio and video can
be incorporated where appropriate. This phase, and the following
review phase, are where the Wiki will be used most often in this
project.

5. Reviewing

After writing phases is complete, students will be asked to
review their own work and the work of others in the class via the
Wiki. The primary purpose of this phases is to help students
identified where common interests exists and where
opportunities to link from one groups section to another may be
applicable. While students discussed possible common ground in
step 3 (Research and Collaboration), this is where they will be
making the virtual link to others content. Also, students are
expected to comment on and ask questions related to the others
groups content pages using the comments section of the Wiki
page. In this respect, students will conduct a peer-review
process where students evaluate whether the goals of the group
have been accomplished and to provide suggestions for
clarification.

6. Publishing

In this phase students "publish" their work in the sense that they
make the content reviewable by others outside of their own
class. That is to address the root of the word publish, which is to
make public. Several types of activities can be used in this phase
depending on the resources available. One example is to hold a
meeting with the students and teachers from the school where
other classes may be involved in seeing the content generated
by the students and a "press conference style" presentation may

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be conducted to unveil the site and provide and opportunity for
questions and answers. Other alternatives include making the
event public so that parents and community members can
participate in the "press conference". Finally, the document could
be distributed over the Internet and sent to community action
groups, government officials or non-profit organizations for their
review.

Conclusion

My conclusion will be based in part on chapter 16 of the textbook
Modeling with Technology by David Jonassen. Carver, Lehrer, Connell,
and Erickson (1992), list five major thinking skills that learners need
to use as designers of knowledge.

• Project management skills-based on the tasks to complete the
project, students will be required to create a time line to
complete the various parts of the project. They may be
responsible for assigning roles and selecting members from their
team to complete various tasks within a certain time frame.

• Research skills-the facilitator will provide guidance on the areas
within the project that will require research. The team members
will be required to gather, analyze, interpret, and organize this
information and present it within their online working
communities in a well structured sequence that conforms with
the requirements of the rubric. This is where knowledge
structure and constructionism will play a major role.

• Organization and representation skills-students will decide how
to best present their information by organizing it in a sequence
that makes the best sense for presenting their material to their
intended audience. This also includes both their online audience
as well as their live audience.

• Presentation skills-all members will be actively involved in the
design and outline of their online working community by using
multimedia to represent their data and attract and maintain the
interest of their audience. Students will work on both their oral
presentation skills and communication skills.

• Reflection skills-what experiences did members have in the
process of gathering this information and what could have been
done differently to make this experience more manageable?

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Based on feedback from other teams, what could have been
done differently to present the material more effectively; other
data, multimedia, presentation of material, organization within
wiki? Was there more emphasis on knowledge acquisition or
were students more preoccupied with the aesthetic design of
their environment? How did the target audience, parents, and
stakeholders react to the student presentations and was the
message well received? Was the overall goal accomplished?

In conclusion, students will have acquired various skills in the process
of constructing knowledge by building their own learning environments
with the knowledge they acquire. By fully participating in the various
tasks and working with other members to accomplish these tasks, they
also acquire critical and creative thinking skills as well as
communication skills. Using multimedia to present their research
allows learners to be creative in their own representation of their
understanding of knowledge. According to Jonnassen (2006),
"Multimedia presentations afford more creative expression than text-
only presentations." Using Hypermedia to represent research can be
both complex and exciting. Because hypermedia involves not only
technology skills but research skills, time management and
organization skills, as well as critical and creative thinking skills,
learners may require guidance and assistance from the facilitator to
begin the process. It is important for the facilitator to provide guidance
and monitor each team's progress and to reinforce the importance of
each team member's participation and involvement in the overall goal
of the project. By doing this, each team member will be able to better
focus on their own construction of knowledge through research and
team collaboration.

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Assessment Procedure

Rubric to focus on quality of posts and interconnections (i.e., links). Each student will be assessed by the
teacher, their peers and via self-assessment using the following rubric. For criteria with multiple raters,
the average value will be used.

Developing (1 Proficient (3
Rater Criteria Mastery (5 pt.)
pt.) pt.)
Student's posts contain Student's post contain
few grammatical and few grammatical and
Student's posts have
spelling errors. Topic spelling errors. Topic
several grammatical and
sentences are used to sentences are used to
spelling errors. Topic
frame the author's frame the author's ideas
sentences are not used
ideas, but supporting and supporting
or are poorly conceived.
Teacher Composition (x1) sentences fail to address sentences provide ample
The written material
ideas adequately either support for the topic
lacks cohesion and is
due to an sentence with an
difficult to follow and
overabundance of economy of words that
understand the author's
irrelevant details or lack detail facts and opinions
ideas.
of support for facts and relevant to the author's
opinions. message.
Teacher Connectedness (x2) Student's post do not Students' posts relate Student's posts relate
relate to other content, (are linked) to content (are linked) to content
as if the student acted created by other created by other
alone to draft the students, however the students. Established
document. No reference connections are connections are relevant
to the work of others is misplaced (topically and robust (many
provided. unrelated) or fail to connections). Student
accurately capture other demonstrates evidence
related work. Student that they read the work
demonstrates evidence of other students and the

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that they have read the
work of other students,
related work is
but may fail to
appropriately applied in
comprehend and apply
reference to their own
the information in
writing.
reference to their own
writing.
Most facts and opinions
are supported by Most facts and opinions
references. The student are supported by
demonstrates little references. The student
ability to differentiate demonstrates the ability
between facts and to differentiate between
Facts and opinions are opinions. The relevance facts and opinions and
not supported by of references is includes a mix of
references. Little sometimes unclear and information from
Research and
Teacher information outside of the student chooses to external sources. The
References (x3)
the student's personal adopt the voice and references used are
experience and opinions language of the relevant to the topic and
are used. referenced work, making provide insight and
some referenced content clearly demonstrate a
unclear, such that the point of view. Esoteric
reader would need to terminology is explained
refer to the original work for the benefit of the
in order to comprehend reader.
the content.
Teacher/Peers/Self Content and Rhetoric Student does not Student considers Student considers
(x3) consider multiple multiple perspectives on multiple perspectives on
perspectives and only their topic and accounts their topic and accounts
describes their own for differences in for differences in opinion
point of view. The opinion, but as a result while clearly establishing
content is not robust the point of view of the their own point of view.
and lacks perspective, author becomes less The content is robust and

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clear. The content is
focused, leading the
robust but lacks focus,
reader to believe the
leading the reader to leading the reader to
author is an expert on
assume that author is believe the author is
the topic and has an
biased and not well- analysing the topic
opinion about which
informed about the without a strong opinion
point of view is correct.
intricacies of the in either direction. The
The student's work is
subject. student's writing is
informative and
informative, but not
convincing.
convincing.
The student is engaged
The student posts and
in updating pages and
updates pages and
The student posts and passages on a regular
passages frequently.
updates pages and basis, communicating
The student meets with
passages infrequently. with peers in their group
peers in and outside of
The student does not and outside of their
their group and may use
consistently meet with group. The student
the comment feature in
peers in or outside of utilizes the
the wiki to ask questions
Teacher/Peers/Self Engagement (x1) their group and does not communication features
and communicate ideas.
use the comment in the wiki to engage
The student is mostly
feature to ask questions with the content and
passive and contributes
and communicate ideas. with other students. The
little to the generation of
The student tends not to student helps to solve
ideas and solving
be present or active in problems and generate
problems. The student is
the group. ideas. The student is
generally present but
present and active in the
passive in the group.
group.
Evaluation (field test) of the lesson will be conducted by higher education faculty.

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Lesson Plan: Wiki Project Group 1

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