News writing using wiki: impacts on learning experience of student journalists

Abstract

Wiki empowers users in generating, revising, and organizing their own content. In this study, we review literature to gain theoretical support for wikis that impact learning. In a context of student journalists learning news writing, we design a two-phase field study:(1) Phase I -to examine learners' reflections on learning news writing in wiki learning communities; and (2) Phase II -to examine wikis' impact on individual learning of news writing. The findings in Phase I show support for the ideas that community learners are aware of the presence of other learners in the community, and devise different learning strategies with the wiki learning environment. The findings in Phase II confirm that "revision" is a key to learning news writing. Wiki successfully facilitates learners' writing processes, especially revision behavior, which finally improves writing performance. Le journalisme d'information avec des wikis: leur impact sur le vécu d'apprentissage des élèves journalistesLes wikis offrent à leurs utilisateurs la capacité de produire, de réviser et d'organiser leurs propres contenus. Dans un contexte où des étudiants journalistes apprennent à rédiger l'information nous avons mené une étude de terrain en deux phases : (1) Phase I: Examiner les réflections des apprenants sur l'apprentissage de la rédaction informative; et (2) Phase II: examiner l'impact des Wikis sur l'apprentissage individuel de la rédaction informative. Les observations de la Phase I confirment les idées selon lesquelles les apprenants en communauté sont conscients de la présence des autres apprenants et inventent des stratégies d'apprentissage différentes grâce l'environnement d'apprentissage Wiki. La Phase II confirme que la révision' est une des clefs de l'apprentissage de la rédaction informative. Le Wiki réusit à faciliter les processus d'écriture chez les apprenants, particulièrement les conduites de révision ce qui en fin de compte, améliore la capacité d'écriture.

Constructs for Web 2.0 learning environments: a theatrical metaphor

“…Vratulis and Dobson (2008) concluded learners develop social relationships through social negotiations to obtain their voices (identities) in Wiki learning environments. Wiki environments empower users in generating, reviewing, and organizing their own content in news writing (Ma & Yuen, 2008); via these processes, they refine their mental models. To participate in wikis, learners frequently need to craft various identities to confirm with their mental model then exchange mental models with others.…”

Attitudinal Factors Affecting Wiki Group Collaboration for English Writing

“…In addition, results for item 16 (3.58), item 17 (3.67) and item 18 (3.60) indicate students' agreement on the usefulness of wikis in improving their writing. Ma and Yuen (2008) who studied on student journalists learning news writing report that wikis effectively facilitate learners' writing processes; particularly their revision behaviour and this eventually improve their writing performance. In addition, the study by Li et al (2012) reveals that with wikis, students are more motivated to look for additional information on the web as they are already online and this encourages them to learn new vocabulary and language forms which contribute to improved writing.…”

Learning Space Mashups: Combining Web 2.0 Tools to Create Collaborative and Reflective Learning Spaces

“…When asked to work in small groups or in pairs, they generally co-operate to develop their ideas constructively. Wikis have been shown to encourage social cohesion within learning groups [9], improvements in academic writing standards [10], and has encouraged students to continue generating, organizing and revising content even after assignments have been graded [11]. Technical constraints can mar the experience where two or more learners are simultaneously attempting to edit the same page [2].…”