TLT CoffeeRead: Wikitexts - Learning better by writing the book

Posted on May 20, 2008 
Filed Under TLT Coffee Read

Wikitexts - Learning better by writing the book

Educational technology has largely kept up with changing times, but one thing that hasn’t evolved much is the textbook. They’re still made up of printed pages — lots of them — and usually out of date by the time they’re published. Educators are discovering now that collaboratively written wikitexts could be the answer.

What do you think? Offer your comments on this…..is Penn State working on anything along these lines?

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3 Responses to “TLT CoffeeRead: Wikitexts - Learning better by writing the book”

  1. Natalie Harp on May 20th, 2008 12:06 pm

    I researched this issue as part of a class I took a couple of semesters back. The 2007 Horizon Report defines this phenomenon of wiki textbooks (lumped together with scholarly blogs and open-access journals) as the New Scholarship. It is no doubt a trend we will be seeing more of, though I know of no specific wiki textbook examples at Penn State (something going on PSU Wikispaces, perhaps?) I wonder how faculty contributions in these new areas are being evaluated in terms of promotion and tenure? Regardless, the article makes a good point - once contributers catch on and realize the real value in these new spaces, the spaces take off as legitimate resources for the scholarly community.

  2. Brett Bixler on May 20th, 2008 3:21 pm

    There’s a missing piece here - ubiquitous access. If students are tethered to a laptop to use these texts, I’m not sure how effective they’ll be - especially if there is a charge to access them.

    Students don’t like to carry laptops around. Too heavy, too likely to be stolen or broken. Students MUST use a computer for many activities and can’t afford downtime. I know this is changing, but has it changed enough?

    Students also LIKE hard-copy books. For one thing, they can resell them. Sounds crazy, but I’ve had several tell me that’s why they don’t want electronic textbooks. For another, lost or stolen or damaged books are cheaper to replace.

    So, electronic books are only one part of a “solution.” We also need to address the concerns I’ve listed above; probably others as well.

    Earlier attempts at the electronic textbook have failed - poor resolution, too costly, etc. Yet time marches on, and newer technologies now exist. Maybe it’s time to revisit this - we should consider a project similar to the TablePC initiative. Seed a few innovators with the technology and some texts, and gather some data to help us see the way to the future here.

  3. Cole on May 20th, 2008 8:04 pm

    Brett, you are correct, they don’t carry laptops to class, but if we found ways to encourage this would they? Close to 70% of faculty report being more than willing to let students use laptops for note taking … there is an opportunity there. To the point of physical texts, I agree they like having real paper, but they tell us very clearly that they don’t like paying $600.00 a semester for them.

    What I would like to see is a University level initiative to investigate the use of wikis as a mechanism for capturing curricular information. I was lucky enough to listen to Jimmy Wales (founder of wikipedia) discuss the approach and governance model at work within that project. I’d be happy to share more face to face, but the short of it is that the wikipedia approach should be studied more closely as a way to organize, manage, grow, and collect curricular content.

    I am sold on the idea that a community of authors will provide a more appropriate curricular alternative to the “one author per course” approach most of us currently use in the creation of eLearning course materials. If a discipline specific governing body could be created (at the department level) authors could be free to create articles that could serve the needs of resident and distance students. Having solid curricular content at the College level available would help redefine the role of the learning design team — we’d be able to focus on the creation of solid design instead of fighting for content.

    This is a topic I would love to hold a brown bag on … anyone interested in kicking it off with a BS Breakfast topic this week?

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