Effectiveness of Wiki Pages as ‘Live Educational Tools’ for History Learning

Objectives: The aim of this project was to investigate the effectiveness of wiki pages as learning tools for the subject of history. Even though history is a compulsory subject in general education, it is considered by the majority of Romanian pupils as too theoretical and of little educational value. Method: Twenty pupils (13 male, 7 female) attending the 7th grade were selected as the study group. The ICT-based history project lasted 30 days and was administered for two hours per week in a school in Bucharest. The project was entitled "The untold story of Romania in World War I", and was part of a learning unit on "Europe and World War I". It aimed at building a wiki as a learning archive to answer the question: "Is there any justification for casualties in armed conflicts?" The wiki was a website that fostered collaboration between the teacher and the pupils. All pupils created personal accounts and participated in collaborative learning, discussion, and the interpretation of historical digital resources. The site included the project plan, useful links to a variety of materials, electronic presentations on World War I, various evaluation grids, a reflective journal, and all the materials developed by the pupils throughout the project. Results: The pupils studied the following historical content: the beginning of WWI, Romanian front, maps of trenches, declaration of war, weapons used, Romanian prisoners of war and monuments for war heroes. In their work they made use of texts, photographs, letters, recent historical articles and posters that they uploaded or linked to the wiki. Discussion: The wiki-based project helped pupils gradually change their views towards the learning of history. Working on historical data in the virtual space provided a game-like atmosphere that aided the development of their own understanding on the topic. This research shows that pupils can change their perspective if they are challenged to historical thinking through involvement in a wiki project.