Are wikis and weblogs an appropriate approach to foster collaboration, reflection and students’ motivation?

Abstract

There are a few hints (e.g. PISA) that today’s’ German school system could be improved to prepare students for their future (professional) lives in an adequate way. To meet the requirements of today’s society, education has to change to become a life-long learning process. E-Learning provides opportunities for this purpose. In this paper two studies at the University of Education Weingarten are presented, which investigate the impact of wikis and weblogs on students’ learning processes. While the first one investigates the impact of weblogs on students’ motivation and reflection processes, the second one concentrates on collaboration and knowledge sharing by utilizing wikis for mathematical projects.