Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Wiki page: wenslearningwiki

Finally got my first Wiki page up and running ever, wow what a trial that was. It was fairly easy tofollow but I found there was a lot of information to go through to learn about what to do and how to do a Wiki page. I found the little information boxes that popped up each time I did something were very very annoying. I have managed to change the background colour, import a picture, invite friends and to manage all the changes and emails on the Wiki, lets hope it all works.
I have had a small amount of experience with a Wiki page before when working with a year 5 class. The students were to add to a Wiki page information they had researched via the Learning place virtual classroom that they were working on from a particular Unit for the term. It was amazing watching the learning and enthusiasm this learning tool was able to keep the students engaged and kept their interest whenever they were working on this particular part in their day. All the students seemed to enjoy being able to add and read others comments and findings and the fact that they were actually contributing to a web page (although it was only availabe to them as a class) was an excitement in itself.
I feel these Wiki pages are a great learning tool for all students in the classroom (which can also be accessed from home) where they can collaboratively learn. These Wikis could also be used as a conference place between teacher and students for homework assignments, their own thoughts and progress on projects they are working on and question and answer pages for when working on projects at home, similar to a forum where everyone sees the answers. It could also be used as an introduction between student and teachers before the begining of a term or year, of course this would have to be arranged prior to commencement as in contact all students and parents - just a possibility........
I would definately use a Wiki inthe classroom for learning.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Wendy,
    I was just reading your blog about Wikis and I totally agrees with you when you say
    "its a great tool for all students in the classroom". I love the fact that you see many opportunities to use wiki in your classroom. I love your idea about using this technology to introduce and communicate with students before the beginning of the year. researchers have found that forming relationships with students is essential and the earlier the better. I thought that wiki's could be used as a communication and conference forum as well for teachers and students to talk about homework and assignments.
    Love your work Wendy
    Sarah.

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  2. HI Sarah,
    Thanks for your comments Sarah, I like your idea about using Wiki's for communicationand cnference forums, what a great idea. I guess students will also find a great idea for using them as well wihtout our ideas and suggestions. I would love to hear some students ideas on how we could use them in the classroom effectively.
    Wendy

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