In this session, we were given time to complete our wikispace on staying healthy.
I really like the idea of allowing children to work in a group and create their own wiki, however, it would take much longer when doing it in the primary school.
In ICT, we have learned the basics on how learning can be effective in this way. If there is a page on each wiki for each child, then every pupil will have a responsibility and feel included.
It is, however, very important to have good organisational skills and have planned exactly what you want to do with the children and how they will be grouped for the lessons to be successful.
I found the following video useful - the teacher discusses some of the ways she has used wikispaces in her classroom. She has demonstrated that they can be used in the classroom to engage pupils who are perhaps not participating in their work in other ways.
Allen, Potter, Sharp and Turvey (2007, page 182) stated the following about virtual learning environments: "There are two main elements to VLEs currently. Firstly, a VLE can be seen simply as a dynamic web space in the sense that the content can be easily updated or uploaded without the need for any knowledge of html code. This means that information and files (including multimedia) can easily be made available to children beyond the limitations of the school timetable and building. Secondly, many VLEs offer a range of online tools such as discussion forums, blog sand wikis. Such tools offer yet further opportunities for children to extend their learning beyond the classroom environment, for example by continuing a debate about the differences between the children's lives in Victorian times compared with today."
From this quote, we are able to see just some of the potential brought into the classroom simply by introducing the children to wikis and different virtual learning environments. Mandy and I worked together to create our wikispace - we shared the workload equally and each created two pages each. Click here to see our wikispace so far.
References
Allen, J., Potter, J., Sharp, J. and Turvey, K. (2007) Primary ICT: Knowledge, Understanding and Practice. Exeter: Learning Matters Ltd.
An excellent choice of quote as the beauty of wikis and today's online tools are we do not need to be web coders. I still think we need to be web designers as we need to be able to design our online spaces but we do not need the know how.
ReplyDeleteNow you mention the collaborative wikispaces and how you need to have all organised so each child knows what they are doing. There is a down side. If you give children the username and password they can go on at home and possibly write things you may not want them to. You need to think how you can moderate this. One option is the change the password so the can't use outside school. Another option is to moderate so edits can't be viewed until seen by teacher. The other option is to get them to work behind the scenes in a Google Doc or Word document and then you as the teacher place the work on the wiki. You will know your class and need to make the decision.
I had a look at your wiki and it is coming along. I learnt a new tool from you for making questionnaires - thank you. Here are some tips:
1. - Not all pictures are viewable.
2. Why not make a heading that can go on each page like a banner to make it streamlined.
3. I know you have your links at the side but maybe you want a 'Home' link on each page.
2.