Wiki anyone?

Reflections on an information literacy class wiki

Abstract

Purpose: Following an first-time opportunity to run a face-to-face workshop with Computer Science First Years the self-imposed brief was to use activities that captured their imagination, be innovative, yet within the author’s technical capabilities. A course wiki, or mass collaborative authoring tool, was an obvious choice for this community. Methodology/approach: The paper reports on observations of two groups; the first observation discusses students use of a course wiki in a face-to-face information literacy session, the second discusses use of a separate wiki by a group of information professionals at a CPD event. Findings: The Computer Science students engaged with the wiki and associated activities and posted some very interesting comments. Encouraging reflection in class following an activity allows a teacher to gauge understanding and just as importantly, to elicit student views. The ability to post anonymously is welcomed by students and teacher alike and mitigates against a cohort going mute when a question has been posed. Whilst using a wiki with Computer Science First Years was extremely successful, mixed results were achieved with a much less homogenous group of information professionals at a CPD event. Originality/value of paper: Wikis are increasingly being used in education and in libraries and in some cases in library education or information literacy. Whilst examples of these can be found easily there is an apparent dearth of writings on how wikis might be used in a face-to-face information literacy session. This article reports on the experience of using a wiki in two different IL scenarios.