Module 10: Learning Communities, Constructing Knowledge Together in Wikis

Wikis

I love the idea of Wikis. It fully supports collaborative learning in online spaces. The benefit of all members being able to access the document/ conversation without millions of emails going back and forth is so high. It also eliminates the possibility that some members of the conversations could miss out on vital information because they weren’t cc’d in on an email or if two of the members continued the conversation between themselves.

Next term my 56 students are undertaking an economics unit where they have to plan, budget and execute a class excursion. This platform will be essential in supporting them to complete their investigation.

The 50 ways site was excellent. It gave clear specific feedback about the usability of different platforms. As an educator this is an essential service for me. Time poor but idea rich means that I need to know that a product is going to suit my needs before spending hours exploring it to only find out that it doesn’t.

I have linked this page to my staff blog at school so that other teachers can utilize these platforms too.

NING – I found this to be a great example of how online platforms can be all pooled together to create a community of learners, Historically research has always told us that students learn well with their peers so this allows for a vast array of peers to collaborate together and share their ideas.

This has absolute potential within the classroom. However, my continual concern remains, as we know the greatest impact on students achievement is directly related to their engagement with their teacher, to be- what happens when a teacher allows ning/wikis/platforms to take the predominant role within the classroom space?

Where are the reflections on how these platforms are used in balanced with engaging, interactive, personalized teaching?

Google sites.

The more years I spend teaching I continually marvel at the changes to our approach to teaching. It’s not that long ago that we were teaching content driven units and testing our students on the numbers of facts they could regurgitate. But I find that as well plummet head first into an interactive unplanned future with our students we are compelled to teach them conceptual skills of research, adaptability and problem solving to help them survive in this ever changing world.

I can see myself planning a unit of inquiry for my students based around creating their own websites. The rich learning and discussions that could be born out of this experience boggles me. Even if students used the content of the ‘passion projects’ (personal topic choice) to drive the purpose of their website creation, the journey of creating them will become a life long skills that would support them in to high schools.