For the past several years I have had the most amazing experiences working with zoo and aquarium professionals as they completed their Master's Master's of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies with a concentration in Zoo and Aquarium Leadership (ZAL) at George Mason. Our program's courses in the Integration of Technology in Schools Online Certificate program were offered to these professionals as electives because many of them were responsible for education efforts at their institution. My goal was to help them understand how technology could be used either to support their education goals, use technology to facilitate community events, design technology-rich activities for school
visits or education programs at the institution, to connect with colleagues across institutions, and/or to initiate
professional development opportunities.
When EDIT 564: Teaching with Web 2.0 tools became available as an elective around 2007/2008, the ZAL students were very excited. As part of their Master's experience, each ZAL student was required to do a project or write a thesis. Many chose project work as this fit into their practice (parallels the ITS experience, huh?). I had the honor to chair several of these projects and was even more honored that many chose to incorporate what they learned in the Web 2.0 course to frame their project.
While all of these projects were implemented with great success and continue to have impact on the zoo and aquarium community, one in particular had success in an area that meant the most to me: changing attitudes about the use of collaborative wikis at the organizational level....that organization being the Association for Zoos and Aquariums (AZA).
My student wanted to use a Wiki as a collaborative tool for all program animal managers to share information about program animals (see PARIS). In other words, it would be a great environment for the sharing of knowledge among professionals and for the development of these professionals. I thought it was a brilliant idea. However, to be successful it needed to be approved by AZA. And that's where the battle began. Apparently there is an internal battle related to program animals and exhibit animals (the program animals being those used in education efforts and not just for exhibits). There seemed to be controversy about what information could be shared about program animals and the fear that a Wiki was too public.
What arguments would you use or how would you go about convincing a large organization such as AZA that this was a really beneficial tool to support the project?
Does this example have any relevance to a school division's use of Wikis? For educating students? For Professional Development?
Remember in the summer you graciously participated in a survey we administered about the value of online learning for Professional Development. Would wikis be a good tool for this? Why or why not? Would you feel confident to design online professional development using a wiki? What sort of professional development could be done and what benefits could be gainded by the use of Wikis as an online tool for educating teachers?
6 comments:
To ease Aza's mind, the blog author can agree to only post approved content so the content can be useful, but controlled.
That works great for blogs, but what about a Wiki? We explained and demonstrated that content uploaded could be protected by ensuring that only Approved Users were able to add content. They had further questions about this.....like.....
People often fear what they don't understand, so my first suggestion would be to reiterate the fact that wikis are effective collaborative tools that allow students to become better negotiators. Users become fact-checkers, editors, researchers, and contributors. I might also suggest a password-protected wiki. Wikis could work well in classrooms and for online PD. All students and all staff members could work toward a common goal. Wikis would encourage those who normally don't speak up, to contribute their ideas.
I think my question with Wikki use is, what is private about professional development? With teachers or zookeepers ( I think these jobs have a lot in common come to think of it) names and specific examples are not needed for the information to be pertinent. As Teresa said, it can be restricted to a closed group and monitored. Any use of the Wikki outside of professional standards would be dealt with in the same fashion as any written, public correspondence, i.e. email, would be.
I’m not sure why there is the reluctance of the animal groups to share with one another unless it is for the same reason that some teachers do not like to collaborate and “share” their classroom information. (What is that reason, by the way?)
I think a Wikki could be an excellent vehicle for professional sharing, especially if it is set up in the fashion as the Wikki in our class has been. The leader would set up topics and teachers add information, lesson plans, links, etc. I created a folder on our staff drive for our CLT to add this kind of information to eliminate the emails that did the same thing but were impossible to keep track of. Now I see that this would have been even more effective if used as a Wikki. Visually it would be easier to read and, at the end of the year, we would have a final curriculum created instead of a jumble of folders and uploads.
I think Teresa, Amy, and Lynne all made strong points. Wikis can absolutely be beneficial tools and AZA shouldn't be so hesitant to begin using one to share their information. I understand that the organization may be hesitant to use a wiki because of negative media concerns, but all that is needed a little education on how well wikis can be implemented. Wikis are able to be edited and revised, as well as open to many authors. If AZA notices that there are issues, then the proper authors need to correct the wiki to properly communicate what is needed to be shared.
As far as using wikis as teaching tools, I agree with Lynn. Teachers are able to act as leaders and model the concept for their students. The possibilities for wiki content in the school system is virtually endless. It would even be neat to use a wiki across a school system, not just a school building. Imagine if I could share a wiki with other 9th grade teachers in the county and then their students could also work on revising the content.
I think the main hesitant for AZA was the fact that the public might get a hold of the information and to them, this is confidential information. What I didn't realize until working on this project was that there is a lot of controversy surrounding program animals---putting undomesticated animals in a situation outside of a natural or created exhibit that closely resembles their natural habitat. For example, when I went to observe one of my student's education program with an African Penguin, the penguin was moved to an penned area, kind of like a stage area, but visitors were allowed to be very close to the animal. Then the zookeeper took the penguin from the penned area and put him on the grass out in the open. The penguin stayed very close to the keeper and we were instructed to stay a certain distance away. To some animal rights groups, this would be cruel treatment.
AZA's position was that anything on the Internet can be 'stolen.' I think there is great competition among institutions for certain program animals too.
My student who created the wiki argued that this tool would create a more collegial relationship among managers rather than competition. Before she was approved to do her project, she had to do a lot of justifying to change minds. After 4 years and several smaller uses of Wikis within AZA, we were finally able to make headway. Changing an organization even in the smallest way takes a leader who is willing to value little successes and to build on those. And by the way, it was a very planned effort...just like teacher leadership :)
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