Wikipedia and wikis as forums of information literacy

Wikipedia and wikis as forums of information literacy instruction in schools Eero Sormunen University of Tampere School of Information Sciences Heidi Eriksson & Tuuli Kurkipää City of Tampere Upper secondary education The Road to Information Literacy, IFLA Congress Satellite Meeting, Tampere, 8 -10 August, 2012

Outline • ”Tieto haltuun” project (Heidi) o Wikipedia assignments • Research findings (Eero) o Effect of the library visit on the use of sources • Professional reflections (Heidi) o Lessons learned

”Tieto haltuun” Project Improving the teaching of IL skills and the information services in upper secondary schools 2008 -2012 Funded by the Finnish National Board of Education and the City of Tampere Project planner Heidi Eriksson

”Tieto haltuun” project • Aims to improve teachers’ and students’ IL skills in upper secondary schools • Aims to develop information services in schools • Initiated by schools o Schools requested an information specialist to update the teaching of IL • Innovation by teachers o Students learn good practices of information searching and use by writing for Wikipedia

Wikipedia assignments: Role of the project librarian • A mediator between the teachers, researchers and the library • 30 -minute session seeking information on the web • 2 additional sessions on the Finnish Literature course – helping students to seek and process the information and to write and publish articles in Wikipedia

Wikipedia assignments: The role of the librarian • Collecting material for the students • 30 -minute session on the library collection and available services + helping students with the library catalogue and helping them locate books from the shelves

Research findings on students actual use of sources

Research setting • Upper secondary school • Writing assignment: • • a Wikipedia article as a group work History class: 28 students, 7 groups Literature class: 30 students, 10 groups Included a special lesson in the local library • Data set analysed • • 17 articles written 189 sources used

Do students use printed sources? 100% 90% 80% 3. 0 70% 60% 50% 6. 1 12. 9 Web sources 40% 4. 3 30% 20% 10% 0% 0. 3 3. 7 Pilot courses (70 History course (116 Literature course sources) (73 sources) Printed sources

Do students write in their own words? 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% paraphrased near copy-pasted History (n=653 sentences) Literature (n=292) Printed sources (n=486) Web sources (n=430)

Do students synthesize information? 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% synthesis 40% summary 30% sen-sen 20% 10% 0% History (n=653 sentences) Literature (n=292) Printed sources Web sources (n=486) (n=430)

Do students plagiarize? 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% close citation loose citation missing citation History (n=653 Literature sentences) (n=292) Printed sources (n=486) Web sources (n=430)

Further analysis in progress • How students work in groups? • Do they really collaborate? • If not why? • Do group work experiences and learning experiences correlate? • How the design of the assignment and the teacher’s interventions affect on collaboration/learning experiences?

Professional reflections

A successful IL course • • Implemented in ordinary courses Appropriate level of difficulty Provides tools for an immediate need or assignment Rooming-in (vierihoito) o the students work, the information specialist assists when needed

A successful IL course: Requirements for the librarian • Presentation skills o Up-to-date knowledge • Knowledge of the average student’s IL skills o What do they need? What can they comprehend? • Collaboration with the teacher o aim of the course, details of the assignment o preparing students beforehand

Before the IL course: Preparing the students • • Study groups formed Assignment explained Topics selected Basic information gathered

Further information Tieto haltuun project: http: //tietohaltuun. wordpress. com/ [in Finnish] Know-Id research project: https: //www 12. uta. fi/blogs/know-id/ Thank you!