Created page with "{{Talk |Conference=SMWCon Fall 2013 |Title=Adding power to educational and research wikis with Semantic MediaWiki |Description=We will describe some use cases for the use of w..."
New page
{{Talk
|Conference=SMWCon Fall 2013
|Title=Adding power to educational and research wikis with Semantic MediaWiki
|Description=We will describe some use cases for the use of wikis in education and research and then discusses how Semantic Mediawiki (SMW) extensions could enhance the user experience in educational and research wikis. We will draw on our own experience with EduTechwiki and related sister sites and on a short literature review. We shall focus on education, but include enhancements to informal research wikis, since sometimes the two are combined. We finally raise a few practical issues with respect to learning SMW technology.
|Speakers=Daniel K. Schneider
|Type=Talk
|Audience=Everyone
|Duration=20-30 minutes
|Keywords=semantic mediawiki, semantic forms, education, research
}}
'''Daniel Schneider & Julien DaCosta'''
:TECFA, University of Geneva
== Introduction and objectives ==
Mediawikis are used for various purposes in both education and research. This short position paper and summary of a talk submitted to [https://www.semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/SMWCon_Fall_2013 SMWCon Fall 2013] attempts to catalog some use cases and then discusses how [http://www.semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/Semantic_MediaWiki Semantic Mediawiki] (SMW) extensions could enhance the user experience in educational and research wikis. We will draw on our own experience with [http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/ EduTechwiki] and related sister sites and on a short literature review. We shall focus on education, but include enhancements to informal research wikis, since sometimes the two are combined. We finally raise a few practical issues with respect to learning SMW technology.
The aim of this contribution is to help creating a small informal community that will push reflections a bit further, for example by:
* documenting other use cases (including identification of useful SMW technology and use patterns)
* identifying a place to share SMW vocabularies, templates, forms, etc. for education and research;
* getting some advice from experienced developers of SMW applications in other areas;
* suggesting new features of general interest for existing extensions;
* identifying some stumbling blocks for new users of SMW technology.
* brainstorming about new developments, including new SMW extension and/or using the Wiki API with external applications.
We also aim participating in the creation of an educational track at [http://www.wikisym.org/ WikiSym 2014].
== Wikis in education ==
Educational use of wikis is widespread, probably in the hundreds of thousands, e.g. [http://www.wikispaces.com/ Wikispaces] alone claims to support over 10 million teachers and students in over 100'000 wikis. MediaWikis are much less popular. However, in particular in higher education, this technology is popular since it supports the creation of large and sophisticated sites for a large variety of purposes. There is an [http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Wiki#Wikis_in_education_bibliography extensive literature] on the educational use of wikis, addressing for example technology acceptance issues, various forms collaborative and project-oriented learning, professional development, sharing of course notes, creation and use of open textbooks, etc. Few publications seem to document educational use of MediaWikis (e.g. Höller & Reisinger), some document using Wikimedia sites like Wikipedia (e.g. [http://www.wwwords.co.uk/rss/abstract.asp?j=elea&aid=5094 Carver et al. 2010]; [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22855578 Chiang et al. 2012]) or Wikibooks (e.g. [http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet26/baltzersen.html Baltersen, 2010]) and even less describe the use of Semantic Mediawiki (e.g. [http://www.computer.org/csdl/trans/lt/2011/01/tlt2011010074-abs.html Dimitrova, 2011])
Below we present a short taxonomy of different cases of educational use that is based on [http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Mediawikis_for_research,_teaching_and_learning our own experience], and [http://ijklo.org/Volume3/IJKLOv3p057-072Parker284.pdf Parker and Chao, 2007]
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Educational uses of wikis
! Purpose
! Learner activities
|-
! Writing-to-learn activities
| Typically, students would write a paper, either individually, individually with some peer critique or in groups
|-
! Documenting cases
| Learners will have to produce structured description of cases, for example a field observation, an artifact like a software, or definitions
|-
! Wiki textbooks and resources
| Wikis can be used to produce textbooks. In variants students can/must contribute. In yet another variants, classes will use Wikipedia or other resources.
|-
! Wikis for course management
| Teachers can define all course-related pages (syllabus, modules, assignments) etc. in the Wiki. He/she also could use the wiki as textbook as above. In a variant learners use the discussion pages as forums and also could upload products and create wiki page as above, and create portfolios of their work.
|-
! Project-oriented learning
| Learners, individual or in groups use the wiki for project work in its various stages. There are many variants. Each may include, for example, definig project goals and plans, collecting information such as links and definitions, track progress, writing/answering questions, writing a report, writing a paper, etc.
|-
! Inquiry learning
| Inquiry learning is an important variant of project-oriented learning that may even put more emphasis on writing and re-writing. Student work starts with a vague question, that progressively must be refined and answered.
|-
! Student written text books
| Instead of consuming a textbook, students contribute to writing a textbook. An alternative would be student-led initiatives to create lecture notes in higher education
|-
! Note taking, knowledge integration and linking
| A wiki can help learners to prepare dissertations and/or keep track of good ideas, definitions, links, references, etc.
|}
== Wikis for supporting research ==
Wikis can be used for various research purposes, including (a) note taking in individual, collaborative, or collective settings, (b) managing documentation of cases and other field study information, (c) managing data and bibliographies, (d) managing the whole process and (e) (pre)publishing findings.
A number of papers report successful use of MediaWikis with Semantic Mediawiki extensions for research purposes (e.g. [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3041544/ Jiang et al. 2010]; [http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1641309.1641340 Alquier, 2010]; [http://nar.oxfordjournals.org/content/40/D1/D1295.short Kumar, 2012])
Our own experience is twofold. Firstly, we have been using [http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/ EduTechWiki] for years to write down ideas and prepare for literature reviews, e.g. it has become a resource kit or in other words, some kind of external memory. Since contents are shared, many others can and do profit. Second, we started using [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Semantic_Forms Semantic Forms] to [http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Portal:_citizen_science document cases and artifacts] in a [http://citizencyberlab.eu/ EU project on citizen cyberscience].
== Hurdles ==
=== Collaboration ===
[http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet26/judd.html Judd, Kennedy and Cropper] (2010), in a study, found little evidence of collaboration despite adopting a learning design that was intended to support it. This matches our own experience across various settings and other literature, e.g. Cole (2009). The now large "Wikipedia" literature also provides similar evidence for the population at large. Finally, the whole literature on collaborative learning points out the need for strong scaffolding of learner activities.
=== Technical difficulties ===
New wiki users (learners, teachers, researchers) encounter many difficulties. In contrast to the unsubstantiated discourse on the high ICT capacities of the new generation, often called "digital natives" or "generations Y and Z". Today's learners do indeed have good skills for networking and trading digital artifacts, but seem to possess lower ICT skills than the generation 20 years ago, lack information ''processing'' skills, and in addition many are afraid of the computer (Cole, 2009; Wecker, 2007; Selwyn, 2009; Margaryan, 2011).
In our own experience, Wiki skills are almost unexistent. Very few users seem to understand the "flat" nature of the wiki and the need for respecting some organizational guidelines, e.g. using meaningful titles for wiki pages. Even learning about 10 different wiki syntax commands seems to be a challenge. In addition, users get lost and tend to ignore various navigation aids, such as categories.
=== Integration in a wiki space ===
Most users seem to perceive a wiki as a simple collection of pages as opposed to an organized hypertext. Wikis maintained by the authors include many student productions. For example in the [http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/fr/Accueil french version] of EduTechWiki only our own students contribute, whereas in the English version we had contributions from different other institutions. Unless students are forced, they do no link to other pages, do not tag with categories and do not improve other existing articles. Teachers (other then the main author) do not seem to be overly concerned by the problem, since like students, they focus on individual productions of their students and not the wiki as a whole. In a next version of this article, we will provide some comparative summary statistics from three wikis.
=== Writing apprehension and public writing ===
While few students seem to posses deep writing apprehension, engaging in public writing and being able to intervene in sections written by others is a problem. That being said, writing in a public wiki, still does present advantages that private spaces like Google Docs can't (e.g. [http://www.wikisym.org/ws2007/_publish/Guth_WikiSym2007_IsPublicBetter.pdf Guth, 2007]; [http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet26/baltzersen.html Baltzersen, 2010]).
Additional problems arise when teachers engage students in contributing to Wikipedia since it also requires learning about Wikipedia guidelines and culture ([http://www.editlib.org/p/33311/ Every et al.(2010)]).
=== Management and coordination ===
Both project-oriented teaching and doing research requires substantial management and coordination efforts. In open environments such as wiki, participants have difficulty keeping an overview of what is going on and therefore will actively seek to orchestrate and coordinate. While using a wiki provides opportunities with respect to other environments, it also augments cost for teachers and research coordinators.
== Potential of Semantic MediaWiki ==
Below we present a few cases where SMW technology could help both educators and researchers and this list should if possible be expanded with existing publicly inspectable wikis.
=== Improving the usability ===
Improving the navigation experience through semantic infoboxes represents a simple, yet powerful application of Semantic Forms. Within a page, a Semantic Form can provide information about the context, prerequisite reading and next steps, related information, various ratings, keywords and so forth. This information then can be pulled together in overview pages, using tables and graphic visualizations. Users can easily add information, due to its auto-completion features.
As well as in project-oriented learning and in research projects, participants are require to provide structured data, e.g. glossaries, bibliographies, case descriptions and so forth. Such applications can be easily implemented with Semantic Forms and one also could imagine special purpose extensions, such as [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Semantic_Glossary Semantic Glossary].
=== Improving task collaboration ===
Contributors to a task, e.g. writing an article, do want to "know what is going on". Teachers and other coordinators need that information too. Some of that information can be extracted automatically, i.e through Yuri Katkov's (no longer maintained) [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:CollaborationDiagram Collaboration Diagram], [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Semantic_Watchlist Semantic Watchlist], or through external analytics programs like the unfinished StatMediaWiki external script ([http://statmediawiki.forja.rediris.es/papers/StatMediaWiki-CSEDU2011.pdf Rodríguez-Posada, 2011]).
Another approach is to ask users to self-report, by asking users for example what they think of an article, how far they progressed with writing or performing an external task. Such a feature can be implemented by using external widgets (e.g. [http://opensym.org/wsos2013/proceedings/p0901-notari.pdf Notari et al. 2013]). Semantic forms, although not designed for that type work, also could be used. Data for each user input could be written to many small user sub pages and then be pulled together for visualizations using inline queries in user pages, wiki pages, and wiki overview pages.
=== Improving wiki collaboration ===
Since typical wiki contributors do not seem to perceive the wiki as a whole, the systematic addition of infoboxes to pages and summaries of individual productions to various overview pages (like course pages or portals) could help. Moreover, extensions like [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Semantic_Social_Profile Semantic Social Profile] ([http://www.wis.ewi.tudelft.nl/uweb2011/paper6.pdf Katkov & Pokotsev, 2012]) with its social networking features, could improve social presence, i.e. the "feeling of being there" and "beeing a part of community".
=== Improving data management and analysis ===
Obviously, as documented in the literature about SMW in research, both semantic markup and the possibility to pull in external data, e.g. with the [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:External_Data External Data] extension create big opportunities for data management. Data analysis is supported through extensions like [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Semantic_Drilldown Semantic Drilldown] (which may be of particular interest to qualitative research) and [http://semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/Semantic_Result_Formats Semantic Result Formats] that allows for a variety of interesting visualizations.
A nice challenge would be the integration of data rich contents in an educational wiki or conversely adding and educational layer to research wikis.
=== Management and coordination ===
Both project-oriented teaching and doing research requires substantial management and coordination efforts, known as "learning design", "scenarization" or "story boarding" in instructional design. While many other tools exist and while "ordinary" wikis can also do the job, extensions like the (no longer maintained) [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Semantic_Tasks Semantic Tasks] bundle could do a great job of integrating wiki reading, wiki writing with managing, coordinating and supervising.
== Issues and problems ==
We starting learning SMW technology sometimes in summer 2013 and could identify a few issues. Some of these could be fairly easily solved while others would require more long term planning.
While documentation is fairly abundant, it is not easy for a beginner to integrate various pieces of the global puzzle in order to ''get going''. For example, in order to understand how to make simple use of Semantic Forms, one must understand: Semantic Web principles, Wiki templates and parser extensions, and Semantic MediaWiki principles. So far, there is only one good book for wiki administrators ([http://workingwithmediawiki.com/ Koren, 2012]). It requires good technical reading skills and may be to concise for absolute beginners.
The easiest, most obvious use of Semantic Forms is to create infoboxes. [http://wwww.ht2011.org/demos_posters/ht2011_submission_140.pdf Larcher's analysis] (2011) of the actual process of Wikipedia infobox creation and
storage revealed many flaws and he suggests that templates are not very flexible and not easy to understand. Semantic Forms are more difficult to understand. However there tools such as CreateClass or CreateForm will assist creation of simple forms and could be enhanced over time (and with funding).
Installation and configuration of various MediaWiki extensions is fairly easy, but it can be difficult to figure how to combine the right versions and why some extension does not work, although all the requirements were met. Many extensions do rely on others and only work with specific versions. We found that working with alpha code (pulled from the GIT master) gave best results, but in institutional settings, many system administrators may be reluctant to do so. A wiki also may include older extensions that will break.
Integration with the [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Collection collection extension] cannot display semantic properties in an appropriate way. The workaround form Semantic Forms, is to create templates with a "display" and a "print section".
== Bibliography ==
* Alquier Laurent; Keith McCormick, and Ed Jaeger. 2009. knowIT, a semantic informatics knowledge management system. In Proceedings of the 5th International Symposium on Wikis and Open Collaboration (WikiSym '09). ACM, New York, NY, USA, , Article 20 , 5 pages. DOI=10.1145/1641309.1641340 http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1641309.1641340
* Baltzersen, R. K. (2010). Radical transparency: Open access as a key concept in wiki pedagogy. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 26(6), 791-809. [http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet26/baltzersen.html HTML]
* Carver, B., Davis, R., Kelley, R. T., Obar, J. A., & Davis, L. L. (2012). Assigning Students to Edit Wikipedia: four case studies. E-Learning and Digital Media, 9(3), 273–283. [http://www.wwwords.co.uk/rss/abstract.asp?j=elea&aid=5094 PDF]
* Chiang, C. D., Lewis, C. L., Wright, M. D. E., Agapova, S., Akers, B., Azad, T. D., Banerjee, K., et al. (2012). Learning chronobiology by improving Wikipedia. Journal of Biological Rhythms, 27(4), 333–36. [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22855578 HTML]
* Cole, M. (2009). Using wiki technology to support student engagement: Lessons from the trenches. Computers & Education, 52(1), 141-146.
* Cotta, C. (2010). Keeping the ball rolling: Teaching strategies using Wikipedia: An argument in favor of its use in computer science courses, 2nd Intl. Conference on Computer Supported Education., Valencia.
* Dimitrova, Vania; Lydia Lau, Rebecca O'Rourke, "Semantic Social Scaffolding for Capturing and Sharing Dissertation Experience," IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 74-87, Jan.-March, 2011 [http://www.computer.org/csdl/trans/lt/2011/01/tlt2011010074-abs.html Abstract, PDF Preprint]
* Every, V., Garcia, G. & Young, M. (2010). A Qualitative Study of Public Wiki Use in a Teacher Education Program. In D. Gibson & B. Dodge (Eds.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2010 (pp. 55-62). Chesapeake, VA: AACE. [http://www.editlib.org/p/33311/ Abstract] (PDF is access restricted)
* Fister, Barbara (2007). Wikipedia and the Challenge of Read/Write Culture, ''Library Issues'' 27 (3). [http://homepages.gac.edu/~fister/LIWikipedia.pdf PDF]
* Guth, Sarah (2007). Wikis in Education: Is Public Better?, ''WikiSym'07'' October 21-23, 2007, Montréal, Québec, Canada. http://www.wikisym.org/ws2007/_publish/Guth_WikiSym2007_IsPublicBetter.pdf
* Jiang G, Solbrig HR, Iberson-Hurst D, Kush RD, Chute CG. (2010). A Collaborative Framework for Representation and Harmonization of Clinical Study Data Elements Using Semantic MediaWiki. AMIA Summits Transl Sci Proc. 2010 Mar 1;2010:11-5. [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3041544/ Abstract/HTML/PDF]
* Judd, Terry; Gregor Kennedy and Simon Cropper, Using wikis for collaborative learning: Assessing collaboration through contribution, ''Australasian Journal of Educational Technology'' 2010, 26(3), 341-354. [http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet26/judd.html HTML], [http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet26/judd.pdf PDF]
* Katkov, Y., & Pokoptsev, D. (2011). Semantic Social Profile–a Semantic Boost for the Social Information in MediaWiki, ''UWeb 2011, International Workshop at ESWC 2011''. [http://www.wis.ewi.tudelft.nl/uweb2011/paper6.pdf PDF].
* Koren, Yaron (2012). Working with MediaWiki, WikiWorks Press, ISBN 978-0615720302, [http://workingwithmediawiki.com/ web site]
* Kumar, S., Schiffer, P. H., & Blaxter, M. (2012). 959 Nematode Genomes: a semantic wiki for coordinating sequencing projects. Nucleic acids research, 40(D1), D1295-D1300. [http://nar.oxfordjournals.org/content/40/D1/D1295.short Abstract/HTML/PDF] (Describes http://www.nematodes.org/nematodegenomes/)
* Larcher, A., Zangerle, E., Gassler, W., & Specht, G. (2011). Key Recommendations for Infoboxes in Wikipedia. The 22nd ACM Hypertext Conference, HT’11, June 6-9, 2011 [http://wwww.ht2011.org/demos_posters/ht2011_submission_140.pdf PDF]
* Lau Lydia; Vania Dimitrova, Sirisha Bajanki, Kathrin Kaufhold, Alex Le Bek, Rebecca O'Rourke and Aisha Walker (2009). Semantic social scaffolding for communities of practice in dissertation writing. ''TEL-CoPs'09''', [http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/llau/publications/TEL-CoP-09-final.pdf PDF].
* Margaryan, Anoush; Allison Littlejohn, Gabrielle Vojt, (2011). Are digital natives a myth or reality? University students’ use of digital technologies, ''Computers & Education,''56'' (2), 429-440, [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2010.09.004 HTML]
* Notari, M. (2006). How to use a wiki in education: Wiki based effective constructive learning. Proceedings of the 2006 International Symposium on Wikis, Odense, Denmark: August 21–23, 131-132. [http://www.wikisym.org/ws2006/proceedings/p131.pdf PDF]
* Notari, Michele, Sonja Schär, Martin Schellenberg, Samuel Kai Wah Chu (2013). Empowering formative assessment using embedded Web Widgets in Wikis, WikiSym 2013. [http://opensym.org/wsos2013/proceedings/p0901-notari.pdf PDF]
* Patten, K., & Keane, L. (2012). Integrating Wikipedia Projects into IT Courses: Does Wikipedia Improve Learning Outcomes? AMCIS 2012 Proceedings. [http://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2012/proceedings/EndUserIS/28 PDF]
* Rodríguez-Posada, Emilio J.; Juan Manuel Dodero, Manuel Palomo-Duarte, Inmaculada Medina-Bulo (2011). Learning-Oriented Assesment of Wiki Contributions: How to Assess Wiki Contributions in a Higher Education Learning Setting. Proceedings of CSEDU2011, 3rd International Conference on Computer Supported Education. Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands. , 2011. [http://statmediawiki.forja.rediris.es/papers/StatMediaWiki-CSEDU2011.pdf PDF Reprint]
* Selwyn, N. (2009). The digital native - myth and reality, Aslib Proceedings, Vol. 61 Iss: 4, pp.364 - 379, 2009
* Wecker, C. (2007). Computer literacy and inquiry learning: when geeks learn less, Journal of computer assisted learning, 23, 133-144, 2007.