This week, we were asked to hold our discussions on a wiki set up for our use. Part 1 of the assignment was to describe a ‘sighting’ that we have experienced on using social media in the classroom. The example I shared was one of using Jing screencasting to do a peer editing activity in Socials 9. Some of the examples people gave were great, and gave me some ideas to think about. Many of my classmates were voicing frustration with not having their own classroom to try some of these new technologies out in, and I was surprised at how many of the others were in that boat.
Part 2 of the assignment was to contribute to a discussion on the opportunities and challenges that using a wiki in the classroom can create. I will highlight a couple key points that came out of the list:
Strategies/Opportunitues
- student-led/student-centered
- support –> teachers are able to involve and include parents
- can connect students with outside agencies
Challenges
- equipment barriers
- copyright
- privacy
- student participation
I found that our page was a little bit hard to follow, as it was a bit free flowing and we did not create a set-up that mimicked the discussion area in our Vista course shell. Some of the strengths I saw, were the fact that people could edit each others work. I found it particularly interesting to see how the information unfolded and changed over the couple of days. This may be seen as a challenge, as well, in the case where someone’s words/ideas get changed to fit the ideas of the group, when that is not what their original intent was… I am definitely use to our discussion forum in the course and I do have to say I really like knowing who posted what. It was hard to know when a new idea was being brought in on the wiki.
I participated in a class wiki in one of my other ETEC courses, and the purposes of that assignment seemed to lend itself more to the use of a wiki. It was a good reminder that it is more important to determine what type of tool best fits what you want the students to learn, rather than simply using a tool for the wow factor.