Wikipedia and wikis as forums of information literacy instruction in

schoolsEero Sormunen

University of TampereSchool of Information

Sciences

Heidi Eriksson & Tuuli Kurkipää

City of TampereUpper secondary education

The Road to Information Literacy, IFLA Congress Satellite Meeting, Tampere, 8-10 August, 2012

Outline• ”Tieto haltuun” project (Heidi)

oWikipedia assignments• Research findings (Eero)

oEffect of the library visit on the use of sources

• Professional reflections (Heidi)oLessons learned

”Tieto haltuun” Project

Improving the teaching of IL skills and the information services in upper

secondary schools

2008-2012Funded by the Finnish National Board of Education

and the City of TampereProject 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 teacherso 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 onstudents 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?

Pilot courses (70 sources)

History course (116 sources)

Literature course (73 sources)

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Web sourcesPrinted sources

4.3

3.7

3.0

12.9

0.3

6.1

Do students write in their own words?

History (n=653

sentences)

Literature (n=292)

Printed sources (n=486)

Web sources (n=430)

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

paraphrasednear copy-pastedcopy-pasted

Do students synthesize information?

History (n=653 sentences)

Literature (n=292)

Printed sources (n=486)

Web sources (n=430)

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

synthesissummarysen-sen

Do students plagiarize?

History (n=653

sentences)

Literature (n=292)

Printed sources (n=486)

Web sources (n=430)

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

close citationloose citationmissing citation

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?

Professionalreflections

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 skillso Up-to-date knowledge

• Knowledge of the average student’s IL skillso What do they need? What can they comprehend?

• Collaboration with the teachero aim of the course, details of the assignmento preparing students beforehand

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

Thank you!

Further informationTieto haltuun project:http://tietohaltuun.wordpress.com/ [in Finnish]Know-Id research project:https://www12.uta.fi/blogs/know-id/