In three short weeks, my views and ideas about ICT in the classroom have evolved rapidly. Three weeks ago, I considered using a PowerPoint presentation to convey information about a topic or using an app to deliver a multiple choice quiz to students, highly effective ways of using ICT in the learning environment. I understood that my learners would be students of the 21st Century in that they would be global minded and technologically savvy communicators, however, I didn’t understand how far teaching has progressed in order to support and engage these new learners. Teachers are now expected to be the coordinator of a learner-centered classroom which facilitates collaboration between students and teachers and uses technology in an innovative way to encourage students to analyse, evaluate and deepen their knowledge of the content. (Palmer, 2015) With this in mind, it was with great interest that I explored Wikispaces to determine its functionality and to establish how it could be used in a transformative way which would support higher order thinking and deep knowledge.
Before signing up to Wikispaces, the only experience I had with wikis was accessing Wikipedia. I knew that any Internet user could access and edit information contained in a wiki but I was interested to learn its possibilities, its limitations and how learning activities could be set up and monitored within this space. I found the initial set up of my wiki to be quite straightforward. (My wiki can be found at http://carlyrobbins.wikispaces.com/Page+1) I set my wiki up as a classroom environment as the news feed on the homepage would enable me to add a variety of projects and activities to the Wikispaces page and enable students to click through to the appropriate learning experience. I found the formatting capabilities to be quite basic however definitely enough to be able to set up the pages in a clear and concise manner. I practiced setting up extra pages on the wiki, linking with hyperlinks, adding text to the page and embedding videos and pictures. I discovered it was also possible to embed a variety of other things such as Google Documents, calendars and tables. I found that it was easy to learn the functions and capabilities of the space as the menus were clear and it was easy to keep editing the document until I achieved the outcome I was after. Once I had set my wiki up, I looked into the privacy settings of the space to determine who would be able to view and make changes to the work. I was able to establish that there are a variety of privacy settings that can be used for a wiki. I chose to select ‘Protected’ which means that even though my wiki is public, only members of the wiki can edit pages. I think that this would be ideal setting for a classroom, as the students could be added as members of the wiki page and thus access the edit function while keeping the page public would enable parents or guardians to access the page to stay connected to their child’s learning. I found the ability to track changes and also each member’s engagement with the page to be very interesting tools which I think would assist a teacher in ensuring that all students were participating in the task. During my exploration, I identified a number of areas that might need careful management to ensure that the wiki is used effectively. These include:
I believe a wiki can be used in the classroom to walk students through the levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy – from knowledge right through to evaluation. When considering both Bloom’s Taxonomy and the SAMR Model, a wiki could be used in the following ways:
In conclusion, the time I have spent creating my wiki has been beneficial to me in that I am more confident now in my ability to create learning activities based upon technology which not only supports but becomes integral to the experience and fosters higher order thinking and collaboration amongst the students. REFERENCE LIST: Palmer, T. (2015). 15 Characteristics of a 21st-Century Teacher. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/discussion/15-characteristics-21st-century-teacher Australia Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2016). 7-10 Civics and Citizenship. Retrieved from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/humanities-and-social-sciences/civics-and-citizenship/curriculum/7-10?layout=1#level9
3 Comments
Dee LaRoche
25/3/2017 12:46:57 pm
This was an amazing blog post with so much information. I really struggled this week with understanding a Wiki and its uses, privacy etc and somewhat "shyed" away from them. This post created a "light bulb" moment for me which certainly helps my own learning. Thanks Carly.
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I love your wiki page Carly. What a great start to developing your pedagogy. When I clicked on the link in the Moodle wiki, the site instructed me that access was restricted. The link works in your blog post though! I'll be teaching Civic and Citizenship under the HASS umbrella, so may need to refer to your wiki for help!
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Naomi Birmingham
13/4/2017 03:00:23 pm
Hi
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AuthorMy name is Carly. I'm currently studying a Graduate Diploma of Learning and Teaching (Secondary) through Central Queensland University. ArchivesCategories |