Using Wikis to Increase Writing Skills in Writing Classes

Year 2018, Volume: 9 Issue: 1, 12 - 17, 31.03.2018

Sezgin Ballidag

Abstract

It’s an undeniable fact that the majority of the teenagers today are keen on technology, and they tend to use it for various purposes. This research attempted to see how using a wiki page in a writing lesson could affect students’ success. The research lasted for two months. Each week, students handed in an assignment, either as a hard copy or online. Data was collected using two different instruments. First of all, Pre and post questionnaires were applied in order to see the student’s attitudes towards the use of internet for educational purposes specifically for writing lesson and peer edit. Besides this, the midterm results of the students, which served as a determiner for success, were analyzed by dependent samples t-test. Results showed that there was not a significant difference in the results of the two groups in terms of their grades, besides this, the percentage of the students who thought wiki was a valuable source for a writing class in the pre-questionnaire decreased in the post-questionnaire. That’s to say, integrating a wiki into the writing classroom was of no help to increase students’ writing skills.

Keywords

collaborative learning, using Wikis for writing classes, peer-editing, constructivism

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