The document discusses a study conducted with pre-service primary education teachers at the University of Salamanca on using wikis as a collaborative learning tool. Students were organized into groups to study different schools, creating wikis on the university's e-learning platform to collaborate. They visited schools and wrote reports on the wiki. Most students found wikis a useful collaborative tool, though some faced technical issues. The study provided qualitative data showing wikis can effectively support collaborative work among university students.

1. The use of wiki as a learning tool by
pre-service Primary Education
teachers: a pre-placement school study
Luis González Rodero
Faculty of Education
University of Salamanca

2. Index
1. Introduction
2. Development of the project
3. Evaluation of the project: results
4. Discussion
Track 10. Teacher Education research and ICT

3. Introduction (I)
• Educational processes in today’s society,
must aim at developing capability and skills
that help students develop their
competence to learn how to learn, become
digital citizens
• The university should provide students
experiences that enable them to acquire
key skills that will be critical in their
teaching career and social performance
• University students are expected to work
following academic standards, becoming
confident with virtual university tools,
making efficient use of resources provided
by e-learning platforms.

4. Introduction (II)
• Students need to access information, analyze, highlight and build their own
arguments.
• The challenge for university students connects with this idea of handling
information, developing critical thinking skills while using powerful digital tools
available, and all this through on-line collaborative work with fellow students
• The e-learning platform at the University of Salamanca, Studium, supported by
Moodle, offers the possibility to use Wiki
• Wiki facilitate that students can work on research projects on-line

5. Introduction (III)
• Wikis help students create and share
knowledge easily.
• One visitor, who is outside the group's
licensed members, will have any possibility
to update information.
• For group members sharing a wiki, any
updating is automatically stored by the
tool, which makes of this collaborative tool
a powerful learning device for university
students
• Wiki allows students to work online in real
time, far from asynchronous situations,
which gives them the possibility to work at
any moment and anywhere.

6. Introduction (IV)
• The use of ICT tools has become a key
competence in any kind of sector these days.
• The university has to implement them to
prepare students for their personal and
professional challenge.
• Achieving high standards in digital competence
is a priority today’s at social, economic, political
or cultural domains, and come to terms with
how fast information turns into knowledge.
• As far as higher education is concerned, the last
decade has seen an important development in
the integration of ICT within management
processes, students’ enrollment and academic
scaffolding, networking and communication
tools.

7. Introduction (V)
• Studium (Official name for the University of
Salamanca Moodle platform) has evolved
immensely in the past decade.
• Last academic year, a new platform based
on Moodle 2.6 was set up, all faculty
members and students being migrated from
the old Moodle 1.9 version into the new
one.
• Students can get access to Studium from
different devices (computers, laptops,
tablets, mobile phones), and they can do
many things with their tools
Main page
Course 2014 - 2015

8. Introduction (VI)
• Most degrees at the University of Salamanca
are offered on a face-to-face basis, students
having permanent on site lessons.
• New teaching processes are becoming
common, and they require the use of the
platform LMS, not only as repository for
content of subjects but also to promote tasks
that demand collaborative work and more
efficient training for students.
• Moodle offers a wide range of tools to work
collaboratively: Wikis, Forum and other tools
which have different levels of complexity as for
instance the Workshop tool. A Wiki is a simple
tool, similar to Word processor but more easy-
Moodle 2.6 Activities

9. 2.- Development of the project (I)
• For the implementation of this project we
used publications, references on how to
work in innovative schools, which have
been collected by Telefonica Foundation,
especially those concerning Spanish
schools, but also some dealing with
experiences in European schools.
• We analyze the cases of Innovative schools,
innovative methodologies, organizational
changes, development of project work
• Another important factor is the relationship
of the school with the families and the
educational community
Make ready your
School for the
Digital Society.
Keys to join the change

10. 2.- Development of the project (II)
1. Students got organized in groups of 4 –
5, decided on a school of their interest
where they would carry out the study.
They used the Forum of Studium
2. Once groups has been organized and
school assigned, wikis were created in
Studium to start collaborative work
3. A scheme of work was handed out to
students, uploading it to their wikis, to
share and decide on actions to carry out.
4. A letter for the Heads of the schools
involved was provided to students, so
that they got in contact to establish a
program of visits to the school

11. 2.- Development of the project (III)
5. Students visited schools and studied their
academic organization, infrastructures,
educational proposal, as well as educational
projects of interest
6. Each member of the group uploaded a final
report on the wiki, whit the coordination
between the group members
7. Having completed the report, it was edited
following a standardized format
8. The final results from each group were
orally presented to the other groups, as a
way to discuss on the background knowledge
they already had about the schools
Rural School
Urban School

12. 2.- Development of the project (IV)
List of centers and groups. Wikis development work

13. 2.- Development of the project (V)
Wiki >> Team 15 >> Sancho II School (Zamora)

14. 3.- Evaluation of the project: results(I)
• The students’ final assessment of the tool used
and the process followed were quite positive,
and they praised the benefits of using wiki as a
tool for collaborative work
• The final data for evaluation of the project come
from those provided by students in tutorials, oral
presentations while and after finishing the
project, interviews with group members and
students’ log books.
• All this evidence provides qualitative data for
final evaluation of the project.
• The use of wiki as a tool for collaborative work,
at degree for Primary Education Teachers, did not
present any implementation obstacles; it was a
useful tool to develop this work

15. 3.- Evaluation of the project: results(II)
• Students have found some technical problems
in working with wikis: Moodle use an HTML
editor that should not pose any technical
difficulties to insert pictures; however, and
taking into account the high percentage of
students who were unable to achieve it.
• This is an situation of blended learning: most
students involved in the project attend school
on a regular basis and share lessons and leisure
time on site. They have also shared and
exchanged ideas for the project while on
campus, instead of using wiki as a working tool.
• Students preferred discussing all the issues in
face-to-face meetings.

16. 3.- Evaluation of the project: results(III)
• About seven per cent of group members
abandoned and did not complete the tasks,
which had to be assumed by the other
members of the group, reorganizing and
adding extra work.
• Most groups felt satisfied with final results,
although some groups complained about
how intensive that month had been,
especially the fourth week.
• At the end of the process of this project,
which involved the use of wiki; later
transferring results into a word processor,
all technical problems identified by students
were overcome.

17. 4.- Discussion
• In this academic year, I have planned a similar project to
students, and I intend to use quantitative data obtained
through questionnaires, so that more accurate data than
the ones collected from interviews and observation
(qualitative methods).
• Teachers must think of incorporating these new virtual
environment tools in their teaching practice to support
collaborative work with their fellow teachers.
• Collaborative work using e-learning platforms is helpful
for educators developing academic and management
tasks with their students
• With this type of project students can work with
colleagues in a campus located in other area, using the
tools offered by the university e-learning platform: Wikis,
videoconferencing,…

18. The use of wiki as a learning tool by
pre-service Primary Education
teachers: a pre-placement school study
Luis González Rodero
University of Salamanca
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