Like most of us, I’m always looking for ways to be efficient and make less work for myself, while at the same time being more effective in my teaching. When it comes to using technology I think that it is easy to fall into the trap of actually doing more work and THINKING that it is more effective because students appear more engaged, when really it is just novel interest that does not result in academic improvement. In considering Trinh’s scenario and the synchronous/asynchronous scenario, I really tried to come up with something that was educationally sound, rather than flashy and eye catching. This is how I came up with the Wiki FAQ idea, because it allows students to pose questions to each other, and to manipulate one another’s answers, and at the same time it reduces Trinh’s workload (she shouldn’t have to answer as many emails). This activity also further reinforced my belief in the value of the “Wikipedia model,” where the sum of the collective is greater than that of a few experts.
It has started me thinking about how I can apply a similar model in my own classroom, though I have to admit that it isn’t easy to let go of many of the teacher driven techniques that I’m comfortable with!