Exploring wiki-writing in the TEFL classroom

Collaborative writing as a relevant skill for the digital workplace – and in the English classroom of the future?

The „Mobile Enhanced Language Learning goes OEP“ project recently collaborated with the FutureSkills initiative at CAU Kiel to create a freely available Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). The course was offered during the summer term of 2022 and was developed in the seminar „Exploring wiki writing practices for TEFL,“ led by Sean Holt, M.Ed. In this seminar, the students explored online wikis, including Wikipedia, to investigate their potential for promoting writing skills and media literacy for the modern English classroom.

Content of the event

During the seminar „Exploring wiki writing practices for TEFL,“ the Master of Education students engaged in the process of knowledge negotiation and meaning-making through hands-on group work. They created their texts in a course-internal wiki on the university learning platform OpenOlat. This experience allowed them to reflect on the nature of digital writing processes in the digital space of shared authorship. In a final block seminar, the participants applied all their gained knowledge in groups by creating their own learning modules for the „Future Skills“ website, a joint open educational platform of the universities in Schleswig-Holstein that provides digital learning opportunities for students and teachers and focuses on future-relevant skills.

The MOOC „Wikis and Wiki Writing“ is a digital introduction to the practice of wiki writing. It is designed as a self-study course that invites exploration and critical reflection. Engaging in the MOOC enables participants to better understand how cooperative writing processes take place in wikis and helps learners conceptualize the varied competencies that are involved in collaborative writing. Furthermore, the course takes a closer look at fan wikis as pop cultural spaces and investigates the reliability and validity of the information the open encyclopedia Wikipedia offers to users.

Added value for students

Through this project, students were able to explore the potential of wikis as a useful tool for building and promoting relevant writing skills for the English classroom of tomorrow while also becoming more media literate.

Overall, this cooperation between the TEFL department and the FutureSkills initiative highlights the importance of building relevant skills for the future through digital teaching and learning-focused activities. As our world becomes more connected, the ability to collaborate and work with others in online writing formats will become increasingly important. The MOOC creation project is an excellent example of how universities can equip students with opportunities to build these digital competencies with meaningful products.

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