Wikis in the Teaching of Writing: Purposes for Implementation

Abstract

Throughout the documented history of the teaching of writing, educators have engaged in various methods through which to guide student learning in the textual medium. In recent years, the digital age has provided a plethora of educational opportunities from long-distance learning and virtual courses, to course management systems, blogs, and wikis. The wiki has emerged as a growing technology with the potential to transform the rhetoric of the writing classroom. The present project seeks to further the research available on wikis in the teaching of writing. This study is both definitional and explorational. The questions it seeks to address include: how are wikis being used in educator's classrooms; to what purposes are the wikis being used; in what ways are wikis being used? To answer some of these questions, various instructor survey responses were evaluated and incorporated into this thesis. The six main purposes for which wikis are being used in education that are identified in this study are 1) collaboration, 2) facilitation of work, 3) audience extension, 4) knowledge building/reflecting, 5) effective writing, and 6) multimodal literacy. After gathering data on the above purposes, this research discusses the results of the data and considers future research for integrating wiki technology into the teaching of writing.