Easy and educational = Perfect for the digital classroom
Wiki technologies can be used to facilitate language learning among the youth as a social activity.
Constructionism as related to computer games and language learning are therefore examined and implemented into the classroom.
Constructionist theory creates a context of learning in which learners become engaged in collaborative construction of sharable and meaningful resources, ideas and concepts.
The following are six general approaches for how wikis could be implemented around schools.
Approach 1: Student Journaling
Instructors want students to journal for a number of reasons: to demonstrate writing proficiency, to expose understanding (and misunderstanding) of conceptual knowledge, to establish the habit of regular reflection, and to engage in meta-cognitive reflection, to name a few. The wiki allows students to journal for their own benefit, or for peer or instructor review.
Approach 2: Personal Portfolios
By enabling students to collect and organise digital assets such as class notes, images, Web resources, and PowerPoint slides, the wiki can help learners to make connections between and among those assets.
Approach 3: Collaborative Knowledge Base
In the more classic use of the wiki, groups can use the environment to create a shared knowledge base of information. This can be used to allow students to develop a project in small groups, to work on a small piece of a larger class project, or even to have students themselves create and maintain the course Web site.
Approach 4: Research Coordination and Collaboration
The wiki allows multiple collaborators who are separated by physical space to collect ideas, papers, timelines, documents, datasets, and study results into a collective digital space. Researchers can also use the space to store draft files for their papers: MS Word, LaTEX, or even writing directly into the Web pages of the wiki. Additionally, funders and junior researchers can be given "read only" access to all or certain parts of the space.
Approach 5: Curricular and Cross-Disciplinary Coordination
As departments become increasingly creative in their efforts to accommodate more students in a distributed/blended learning environment, curricular coordination among faculty and T.A.s gets increasingly important. The wiki allows for departmental personnel, instructors, and teaching assistants to organize common course assets, such as syllabi, office hours, and assessments, without having an endless email chain or difficult to schedule face-to-face meetings.
Approach 6: Conference and Colloquia Web Site/Coordination
Many departments, schools, and scholarly centers at the university have academic conferences and colloquia. By allowing presenters and attendees access to add and edit content, the conference wiki can serve as a resource before, during, and after the event itself. The wiki can also be used by conference administrators as a means of organizing the event.
Of course, there are many other ways to use the wiki in an academic setting. For instance, check out the following clip about integrating web based learning activitiesinto the classroom.
Online communication via discussion forums and synchronous text can offer an increased sense of community and cohesion for students in online education.
Online education environments and the communication that supports them encourage and support inquiry, team projects, and problem-solving skills.
Two elements of success of online communication in education are participation and facilitator/instructor involvement.
Online education can become a more student-centered form of education delivery.
Online communication can provide:
flexibility of access anywhere, anytime
student interaction
enhancement and complements face to face educational activities
prompt and efficient feedback
sharing of information including electronic files
a sense of group community among students.
group task accomplishment
collaborative learning and problem-solving
peer review and tutoring
opportunities for critical and creative thinking
opportunities to develop written communication skills
Threaded discussions can be used to:
provide opportunities for interaction and communication
provide flexible assessment and performance feedback
provide quality learning resources
provide academic, administration and learner support
In the following interview with Craig Mundie talks all about how technology will transform education, making it better for you and me!!
Qualities of an effective virtual team - here are some links to effective team work (not about virtual teams, but i thought we could adapt it to suit our situation, most points should roughly be the same)
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