Why won't they take them on? A study on student teachers' first-time engagement with wiki technology

Abstract

The topic of the dissertation is the use of wikis in teacher education. The study is based on two classroom interventions involving first-time use of wiki technology. In the first, 18 students of Social studies created a Wikipedia article; in the second, 13 students of Norwegian co-edited a fiction-based, class-only wiki. The study is concerned with how the student teachers engage with, make sense of, and assess the pedagogical value of wikis. Two research questions are asked, representing two stages in the research process: 1, what are possible benefits of using wikis in teacher education? 2, why do students express reluctance to “take on” wikis in their professional practice? Data was gathered through a survey, students’ logs and response texts, individual interviews, field notes, and the wikis’ records of user activities.

The data shows that the students, having little or no previous knowledge of wikis, quickly master editing and discover how wikis like Wikipedia are created and maintained. Their logs show that they begin to perceive the wikis as socio-technical systems involving both human and technological agency. However, when the students are interviewed about the experience later, they display reluctance towards “taking on” wikis in their own teaching and their accounts have become more aligned with more traditional, received notions of technology.

The study adds to the research on pedagogical use of wikis and on factors affecting new teachers’ uptake of new technologies. The analysis points to uptake as not only related to more commonly identified barriers but also informed by the discursive environment. The study concludes that teacher education needs to include more explicit theorization about technology and its role and purpose in education. The versatility, complexity and transparency of wikis make them particularly suitable technologies for addressing these issues.

The dissertation consists of five published articles and a summarizing text (“kappe”) of four chapters.