Augmenting Wiki System for Collaborative EFL Reading by Digital Pen Annotations

Abstract

Wikis are very useful for collaborative learning because of their sharing and flexible nature. Many learning activities can use Wiki to facilitate the processes, such as online glossaries, project reports, and dictionaries. Some EFL (English as a Foreign Language) instructors have paid attention to the popularity of Wiki. Although Wikis are very simple and intuitive for users with information literacy, Wikis need computing environment for each learners to edit Web pages. Generally, an instructor can only conduct a Wiki-based learning activity in a computer classroom. Although mobile learning devices (such as PDAs) for every learner can provide ubiquitous computing environment for a Wiki-based learning activity, this paper suggests another inexpensive way by integrating digital pen with Wiki. Consequently, a learner can annotate an EFL reading with his/her mother tongue by digital pen. After everyone finishes reading, all annotations can be collected into a Wiki system for instruction. Thus, an augmenting Wiki structure is constructed. Finally, learners’ satisfactions about annotating in the prototype system are reported in this paper.