Through my classes at UWG, I have learned that Wikis can be a great educational resource. I love the fact that it can be a great organizational tool for teachers as well as students. They can also be used for a place for students to submit assignments, as well as for project spaces. I can also envision a wiki as a way to promote collaborative writing. This would allow students to receive comments and feedback from their instructors and peers. Also, wikis can be used as a place for ongoing discussions. Wikis would be a great way to organize sources all in one place. If students were working on a project they could "store" all of their resources on this wiki for easy access.
Wikis can change the focus from individual instruction to a focus on collaboration. Collaboration could also be used with students from different schools, states, or even coutries to work together on a common project. If a teacher is requiring collaboration with the students, he or she must monitor and bring up issues of authorship to make sure that the information is accurate and meaningful to the student.
After reviewing some of the wikis from the course notes, I found that some of the examples can be very hard to follow, or very busy. I am saying that there was so much information on the pages that it could be overwhelming. Maybe the information needs to me monitored and removed when it is not needed anymore or becomes out of date. Also, another drawback to wikis is that they can be updated or change by the users. Is the content ever valid? That is the question that users must ask.
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I like the fact that you acknowledged how people were going to know accuracy of things that are posted to a wiki. It is difficult to know how accurate the information is when it is posted by multiple people. However, if they give credit to the original author, then there should be no question as to whether the work is accurate
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ReplyDeleteLeann,
ReplyDeleteYou stated, "Wikis can change the focus from individual instruction to a focus on collaboration. Collaboration could also be used with students from different schools, states, or even countries to work together on a common project." I find this to be a most excellent use of Wikis. Unfortunately, before reading your post, I had not thought of Wikis in the sense of being a collaborative tool for students from different schools, states, and countries. I had thought of Wikis in terms of classroom instruction within the confines of a teacher and her students. But your idea of using the tool as one for collaboration, especially across schools/states/countries, is innovative. Just imagine at what our students could learn! The diversity of culture, language,and subject could open up a whole new world for our students! Language teachers could use the tool to implement their foreign language teaching. Students could actually learn to write the language being taught with a native speaker/reader/writer of the given language. Or political and cultural issues from social studies classes could be explored with students from other countries. The different ways one can use the Wiki for educational purposes are endless! How exciting! Great insight Leann!
Tammy White
I like the ideas of ways that you could use a wiki. This has been my first experience using a wiki, and I love it. I think it is a great way to organize and display lots of different information. I love what you said about wikis being a way to collaborate with students from other places. I agree that sometimes the information can look to busy or hard to follow. This might be a difficult technology to learn for those who aren't used to things like this. However, I think that once they learn how to use a wiki, they will find it to be a much easier way to organize and share information.
ReplyDeleteAmanda Fincher
I agree that when looking at some the examples, they were a little too busy. My biggest complaint about some of the example sits is that they were not up to date. One of them had an up coming events tab and then when I clicked on it the events were for 2008. I think wikis can be a useful tool, but it is important to keep them up to date.
ReplyDeleteI agree teachers have legitimate concerns with the content in a Wiki being open to change by everyone. However, your idea that it is a collaborative tool is such a strong argument for them! Groups in a class working on projects together, all contributing, and as you mentioned, storing their resources. Great experience for working together in the business world. Working with students in other places... Set up a collaboration between your students and students in a sister city, either in the U.S. or abroad. Develop student's understanding of other cultures and viewpoints. Good ideas!
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