Wikiversity’s potential in global capacity building

First Monday is probably the first openly accessible, peer-reviewed journal on the Internet. Since its start in 1996 I have been a reader of the journal. In the First Monday’s archives there are several articles that really have shaped my thinking on the Internet and the Web.

The current volume (Volume 14, Number 2 – 2 February 2009) that was just published comes with an article I wrote with my colleagues, Tere Vadén and Juha Suoranta.

I would love to hear your comments on the article on this blog or somewhere else. Let me know, thanks!

The article is here:

Learning in and with an open wiki project: Wikiversity’s potential in global capacity building

Abstract

There is a chance that Wikiversity will become the Internet’s free university just as Wikipedia is the free encyclopedia on the Internet. The building of an educational entity demands considering a number of philosophical and practical questions such as pedagogy and organization. In this paper we will address some of these, starting by introducing several earlier approaches and ideas related to wikis’ potential for education. We continue by presenting three commonly used metaphors of learning: acquisition, participation and knowledge creation. Then we will present the main principles of two existing alternative educational approaches: free adult education and free school movement. To test these educational approaches and practices on Wikiversity and increase our understanding of the possibilities of this initiative, in the spring of 2008 we implemented an experimental course in Wikiversity. We conclude with several recommendations essentially advocating for Wikiversity and the use of wikis in education. However, more than just presenting our opinions, as authors we aim to make an educated — traditionally and in the wiki way — contribution to the international discussion about the future of education for all in the digital era.