Wikis

Wikis in the classroom - how they can assist with students learning.

As a teacher you would have to be careful that is simply not an exercise in getting students to work through each page and not learn anything.  There needs to be allowance in the learning where the students need to connect and go sideways to learn.  They need to be able to look for information and add it in.  This site is also good for the fact you can go back and track changes.  Though this site is not kept in chronological order like a blog.  Careful considerations needs to be for all learning, there are some students who like to work autonomously but in real life we still need to be able to work in groups.  There are students that like face-to-face teaching, how does that happen with Wikis, as a teacher there could be videos by the teacher that have been compiled by them for the students.  In class speak about the Wikis and what is happening, have open dialogue about it.

Copyright and acknowledging where information was sourced from also has to be looked at and considered.   As a teacher i would set the standard for the students and then have the students follow.  It is also promoting honesty on the web, 'how would you like it if someone stole something from you', that is what happens if we do acknowledge who made the site.

What is paramount in my thinking of this technology is that not all schools are equal.  Blogs are required in ACARA though the problems encountered by the teachers at the schools are not able to offer this due to lack of computers, poor internet or slow computers, which is very frustrating for all.