Wikis in education
As Paul Fuller was heard to say in his keynote address at the St Helena’s Catholic Primary School ICT day (2007), we live in an age of “Digital Natives” and “Digital Immigrants. Digital natives comprise of our young generation who have grown up with ICT surrounding them, while Digital Immigrants are the older generation, to include educators. To teach the digital natives, we need to talk in a language they understand. ICT is not the way of the future, it is here, now. Using wiki products, weblogs, and other Information Communication Technology engages students more because it is in “their language”, that of the digital natives.
Wikis are collaborative spaces that allows users to:
-read, add, edit text and files.
-add sound, movies, and links to websites.
-communicate asynchronously.
-create multimedia presentations.
-create simple digital stories.
Advantages of Wiki:
-Ease of use & low learning curve for students whom, let us be honest, are digital natives. I often marvel at the fact that they learn new technological applications so easily. Being that I had never used a wiki before, I found that it was quite easy to adapt to.
-Anyone can edit the wiki pages or you can regulate access.
-Keeps track of edits and it is easy to revert back to former versions.
-Promotes ‘real world’ collaboration, thus pooling the strength of many.
-fosters richer communication than synchronous communication…allows the user some ‘think time’.
Disadvantages of wiki:
-Internet related distractions…are students on task?
– Unless clear instructions are made detailing the purpose of the wiki, then too many students may create chaos on the wiki site.
IDEAS for Wikis in the classroom:
1)Classroom information wiki-
It can let students and parents know what we are up to in the class. We can upload newsletters and other important sheets in case they get ‘lost’ on their way home. Post student assignments, rubrics and other important information so that students can no longer give excuses for incomplete assignments.
2) Whole class projects where each student is responsible to create a set number of pages and they link these pages to class members work.
3) Group collaborative project
4) Organize an event.
5) Teach collaboration for lesson plans and worksheets.
6) Preventing plagerism?
References:
Fuller, P. (2007). Innovative ICT in the Classroom. Keynote address at ICT day at St Helena’s Catholic Primary School, Ellenbrook, Western Australia. Retrieved 3/9/07 from http://digitalgeneration.wikispaces.com/Creating+School+2.0