Mediated collaborative learning

Wikis should be a very familiar Web application for most ERCIM News readers. Once used mainly by the open-source community, wikis are now increasingly being adopted for day-to-day work in large multi-partner and company-internal projects. We have recently been exploring the application of wikis to Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL). As we explain below, language in wikis is produced in a collaborative fashion, with all participating members developing and improving the contents of the wiki. Individual contributions motivate the rest of the group to participate in the process of knowledge creation in numerous ways. Following a three-semester study looking at the use of wikis for CALL, our results indicate that they facilitated the simultaneous appropriation of language, technological tools and collaborative skills, often referred to as multiacquisition.