"Teaching Technical Communication with Wikis"

Contents

Introduction

Pedagogical Benefits

Practical Benefits

Considerations for Instructors

Works Cited

Introduction

Wiki technology creates opportunities for students in technical communication courses to gain experience with web design, writing for the web, and open-ended projects.  As tools for collaborative learning, they also develop students’ project management skills and teamwork abilities.

This article discusses the affordances, pedagogical foundations, and practical benefits of teaching with wikis, and suggests ways that technical communication instructors might incorporate this technology into their courses.

Why Wikis?

Numerous scholars in composition and technical communication have emphasized the value of technology-based assignments in these courses. Web 2.0 technologies offer many opportunities for students to produce multimodal texts and explore the possibilities these technologies have to offer. However, technical communication courses are somewhat more constrained in the kinds of projects we might incorporate; some multimodal projects, although potentially entertaining and useful in some ways, may not fit the mold of professional communication. Furthermore, tools for producing multimedia and distributing it online have become more expensive and more difficult for students to access from their own computers; they may have little opportunity to work with tools that allow them to produce and distribute online content outside the realm of blogging and social networking.

Wikis, on the other hand, provide what essentially amounts to free web hosting, allowing students to create and publish content that is available to the public using an easy-to-learn interface. Users can create wikis through the use of a wiki hosting site, within which they set up their own wiki site, assign it a URL, and start with a blank homepage. They can then add pages to the site, author content, and incorporate elements such as internal and external links, images, and videos. Other users that are designated as authors of the site can edit existing content and add content to the site. Authors and users can not only see the content in its current state, but can also view the history of changes to individual pages in the site, allowing them to track which authors have made which changes.

Wikis have the potential to be powerful tools in the teaching of technical communication because they require students to create their own structure and organization, collaborate with their peers, and make their work accessible to an audience beyond the classroom—all within a digital environment. Additionally, instructors can incorporate wiki technology at varying degrees in their classrooms and tailor assignments to focus on a variety of course objectives.