"Wikis for collaborative learning, knowledge construction, critical thinking, and contextual application."

Anyone who knows me...knows that I am passionate about employee development and training, employee connectedness to the organization, and employee retention.  I have been in the same global company for 30 years and it is a part of me.  When I first started researching and learning about wikis (last week J), I immediately connected the usefulness of the media platform to company initiatives for global companies.  Although this week’s grad homework is to build a lesson plan using a wiki, I am going to add a twist and make it a company project…one that I would love to facilitate one day.  The target audience for this post and associated plan/project would be any HR professional or manager interested in improving recruitment, engagement, and retention of employees.

With this blog posting, I am going to highlight my ideas for integrating a wiki tool into a company initiative to help aid the collaboration, critical thinking, and eventual presentation for a new “onboarding” program.  The overall purpose of a wiki is to support the team’s needs for building a shared understanding of a topic, goal, or objective; to support team processes such as planning, research, and problem solving; and to create team outcomes through a shared document or set of documents. (West and West, p. 5)

What is onboarding?  “Onboarding” is more that an employee’s first day on the job.  It is also more than a one- week orientation in a new organization.  Onboarding is a means of increasing employee productivity and engagement levels, reducing turnover, and elevating a company’s employment brand in the eyes of prospective hires (Stein and Christiansen, 2010).

Similar to a lesson plan, the initiative would look like this:

Title: Creating a Strategic “Onboarding” Program for ARX Company.

Project Participants: Sampling of the Organization’s HR Professionals – all of whom have some technology skill, experience.

·         Project Lead/Facilitator – Kansas City (Shelly)

·         Chicago, IL (Diane)

·         Hammond, IN (Mary)

·         Petersburg, VA (Phyllis)

·         Sahagun, Mexico (Jose)

·         St. Louis, MO (Matt)

Learning Objective: Research, review, and share content and ideas to create a strategic “onboarding” program to be used by the company to:

                                          i.    Create a competitive advantage.

                                        ii.    Increase employee productivity and engagement.

                                       iii.    Reduce turnover.

                                       iv.    Strengthen brand recognition, elevate the company’s employment brand.

                                         v.   Measure program effectiveness.

Lesson Plan/Project Structure: 8 weeks for all participants

·         Week 1 –

                                          i.    Read Chapter 1-2, Successful Onboarding by Mark A. Stein and Lilith Christiansen, 2010. 

                                        ii.    Post to project discussion board the following by Friday EOD:

1.     Your business units turnover rate

2.    Any initial questions/concerns regarding the project

3.    Three ideas from the text the group should consider

·         Week 2 –

                                          i.    Review and respond to discussion board postings from week 1.

                                        ii.    Read Chapter 3-5, Successful Onboarding

                                       iii.    Watch video “wiki in plain English” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY

                                       iv.    Read the article: What are wikis and why should you use them?

 https://business.tutsplus.com/tutorials/what-are-wikis-and-why-should-you-use-them--cms-19540

                                         v.    Go to the project wiki sandbox and post one onboarding idea and one relevant picture (practice) by Friday EOD.

·         Week 3 –

                                          i.    Review the wiki sandbox for group posts.  Provide feedback on the project discussion board with experiences – struggles, questions, tools, recommendations to share with the group.

                                        ii.    Read Chapter 6-7, Successful Onboarding

                                       iii.    Go to the project wiki sight and post at least two ideas or past experiences related to “an employee’s first week” requirements by Friday EOD.

·         Week 4 –

                                          i.    Read Chapter 6-7, Successful Onboarding

                                        ii.    Post to the project discussion board the three most relevant insights you learned regarding what hired employees need in the first week, month, and year by EOD Friday.

                                       iii. The project facilitator will create a home page introducing the initiative.  Also, the Project wiki site will have five tabs: (one) First week – HR; (two) First week – Mgr.; (three) Training; (four) Connectedness; and (five) Diagnostic.  Post a relevant idea into tab one, two, or both, from what you learned through reading or experience.

·         Week 5 -

                                          i.    Read Chapter 8-9, Successful Onboarding

                                        ii.    Post a relevant idea on a new programs requirements for tabs three and four in the project wiki. 

                                       iii.    Review the postings in tab one and two and make necessary edits and add relevant requirements from your experiences.

·         Week 6 –

                                          i.    Review tabs one through four and continue to refine.

                                        ii.    Post at least one requirement on tab five for a program diagnostic and your suggested method – survey, journal, etc…by EOD Friday.

·         Week 7 –

                                          i.    Review all wiki tabs and refine.  Make sure the content meets the minimum project requirements presented in the table. Provide/post individual ideas on when, how often, and by whom a diagnostic should be performed in tab five by EOD Friday.

·         Week 8 –

                                          i.    Conference call with group and management to present the strategic plan.                                       

                                          ii.    Group participants complete survey for facilitator on strengths and weaknesses of the project structure, wiki experience, facilitator, and the end-product.

Project Requirements:  The new program must consider/address the following areas, at a minimum.

First Week – HR	First Week – Manager	Training	Connectedness	Diagnostic
Welcome/ swag	Welcome	Company 101	Mentor/ Buddy	When
Forms	Expectations-first 180 days	Products or Service	Relevant Network	How
Benefits	Tool Kit - checklists	Responsibilities	Social/ Community Service	By Whom

Rationale for the use of wiki – as mentioned, above, the use of a wiki for a project that requires collaboration just makes sense.  In this case, with participants scattered around the US and in Mexico, the wiki platform would be very useful.  In addition to research on the topic of onboarding, I tried to provide background, training, and tools (sandbox) for the use of wikis, along with videos about the platform in the project.  As the facilitator, I would also be responsible for responding to any discussion board feedback (struggles/suggestions) from the participants.

I would love to hear what you have to say about my blog…please let me know your thoughts.

References:

LeBar, Z. What are wikis and why should you use them? April, 2017 references on September 25, 2019.   https://business.tutsplus.com/tutorials/what-are-wikis-and-why-should-you-use-them--cms-19540

Stein, M. and Christiansen, L. (2010).  Successful Onboarding: A Strategy to Unlock Hidden Value Within Your Organization.  McGraw-Hill books.

West, J. and West, M. (2009). Using Wikis for online collaboration: The power of the Read-Write Web. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons. 

Wikis: Pros and Cons for the Adult Learner

Ever hear of Wikipedia? We all have...right?  If you are under the age of 25, I am willing to bet you also knew that Wikipedia is the most popular "wiki"page.  If you are over the age of 50, like me, you may not have heard the term "wiki" before and you might guess that it is the name of a cocktail?

As a new grad student, I am quickly learning that a wiki is a very popular and useful tool for collaborative learning.  A wiki is a software platform designed specifically for multiple authors—project team and stakeholders, business partners, customers, and students working jointly on a project—to be able to quickly and collaboratively post and edit materials without the need for expert Web development skills. Wikis allow collaborators to easily “riff” on ideas and elaborate or refine them (SKMurphy.com).  Howard G. "Ward" Cunningham is the American computer programmer who developed the first wiki in 1994 in order to make the exchange of ideas between programmers easier in his company (King and Cox, p 122).

It would seem logical that a wiki can and should be used as a tool for teaching and learning.  Wikis are a component of Web 2.0 technology tools that provide collaborative features and active learning opportunities in a web-based environment (Hazari, North, Moreland).  The technology makes it easy to work on a collaborative document, track work in progress, and participant contributions.  Research in this area has concluded that no single technology by itself (wikis) can impact learning outcomes, but when used correctly the technology provides for many benefits (Hazari, North, Morland).  Let's explore some of the benefits and also review potential pitfalls or limitations for the technology.

Pros:

• When adults are presented with self-directed learning opportunities, there is a greater chance for them to learn and retain the information. (King and Cox, p122)
• Students are able to focus on content because wikis do not require advanced technical skills.
• Wiki technology provides for ease of collaboration and sense of community, or social interaction.  Constructionist theorists believe that learning is a social process and that learning occurs through interactions (King and Cox, p 124). 
• Just like blogging, wikis give peers a platform for sharing ideas and experiences, all without geographical barriers.
• Wikis provide for real-time updates, where once content is saved it is accessible and available for review by all interested parties.
• Wiki technology is affordable.

Cons:

• Older students like myself are not familiar with the technology, and may be hesitant to try it and/or post thoughts to a public site (privacy).  Just like with blogs, ideas and opinions change over time with new knowledge/experience.  
• If the wiki access is not controlled, unauthorized and/or unwanted changes to content could occur and there is a possibility of sabotage to the site.
• The most common concern new wiki contributors express is the fear that they will "mess up" someone else's work.  It is not unusual for students to insert edits into the wrong place on a wiki page or accidentally delete material that they wanted to keep (West and West, p.19).  Is there a wiki etiquette guide for users?

For an additional resource on wiki pros and cons, check this out:

http://meblog.pbworks.com/w/page/11074188/Wiki%20Pros%20and%20Cons

To conclude, the use of wikis in adult education is a "win" for teachers and students, alike.  Wikis seem to be the ultimate tool for constructive learning, providing a problem manipulation space, cognitive tools, learner-centeredness, and social presence through communities of learners, interactivity, and support, all in one place (Seitzinger, 2006).

References

Hazari, Sunil; North, Alexa; Moreland, Deborah.  Journal of Information Systems Education; Investigating Pedagogical Value of Wiki Technology, West Lafayette Vol. 20, Iss. 2,  (Summer 2009): 187-198.

King, K.P. and Cox T.D., (2011). The Professor’s Guide to Taming Technology. Charlotte, NC: INFORMATION AGE PUBLISHING, INC.

Seitzinger, Joyce, (2006).  Learning Solutions e-Magazine; Be Constructive: Blogs, Podcasts, and Wikis as Constructivist Learning Tools. 

https://www.skmurphy.com/how-does-blogs-and-wikis-help-me-collaborate-with-my-customers/ referenced on September 17, 2019.

West, J. and West, M. (2009). Using Wikis for online collaboration: The power of the read-write Web . San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons. 

Blogging: Pros and Cons for Adult Learners

Should blogging be used in and out of the classroom for adult learners?  A resounding "yes" from me!

The Web has become a site for constructing knowledge in which learners become content creators, collaborators, and community builders.  One of the most visible contributors to the Web 2.0 world of digital media is the Weblog, or blog.  (King and Cox, 2011, p.89)   Blogs – a contraction of ‘web based logs’ or ‘weblogs’ – are essentially online journals where an author publishes a series of chronological, update-able entries or posts on a topic, typically of personal interest to the author and often expressed in a strongly subjective voice, on which readers are invited to comment (Farmer, Yue, & Brooks, 2008).  Unlike discussion boards, in my experience, blogs appear to be more intimate, and are personal in nature.  Although blogs are often personal journals, they can also be more guarded than a class discussion board because they are published to all on the web. 

Blogging has gone mainstream. I frequent blogs on local politics, favorite authors, sporting teams and local sporting events, to name a few.  My fifteen year old daughter just shared that she is creating a blog using Weebly for English Class.  Although I am an avid reader, I had no experience creating a blog before today.  However, I know that I need to embrace my technology "angst" and leverage the learning opportunities technology can provide.  Blogging has many pros and cons for adult learners like me.

Let's tackle the cons, first. I learned in an article about understanding and changing adult perceptions of social media that privacy was the number one or primary concern and key perceptual barrier to adoption.  (Xie, Watkins, Golbeck, Huang, 2012)   A blog leaves a forever internet footprint, from which one can be judged until the end of time.   Ideas and opinions change over time while we mature and gain information and experience.  A blog piece on politics today will look different 10 years from now when the political landscape and attitudes change.  (Example #METOO.)    Another concern or issue to blogs in education is the accuracy/legitimacy of the information presented.  Don't believe everything you read.

Even with these potential pitfalls, the benefits of blogging in education are vast.  Research on learning through blogs assert that blogs have the potential to be a transformative technology for teaching and learning because of their reach (King and Cox, 2011).  They provide for peer interaction, individual thought and collaboration, and analytical thinking.   Blogging gives peers a platform for unrestricted communication and for sharing ideas and experiences.  With this post, I feel more informed on the topic of blogging and can't wait to hear your views!

References

King, K.P. and Cox T.D., (2011). The Professor’s Guide to Taming Technology. Charlotte, NC: INFORMATION AGE PUBLISHING, INC.

B. Farmer, A. Yue, C. Brooks Using blogging for higher order learning in large cohort university teaching: A case study.  Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 24 (2) (2008), pp. 123-136

Bo Xie ,Ivan Watkins,Jen Golbeck &Man Huang, Jan 2012, Understanding and Changing Older Adults' Perceptions and Learning of Social Media, pages 282-296. Educational Gerontiology, volume 38 – Issue