Wikis can be used for collaboration by both students and teachers. Collaboration is an advantage for educators because, traditionally, teachers have worked in isolation with little sharing among peers. Wikis are an easy-to-use tool for grade-level or subject-area teams, or for any other group collaboration. They provide educators with a way to post and share information, strategies, thoughts, and lessons and to build on one another’s work(Solomon and Schrum, 2014). I was asked to join a Wiki last semester to share an assignment. I joined, not knowing what I was joining or what a Wiki was. I now know a Wiki is a web page that can be viewed and edited by anyone with access to the Internet with the Web page owner’s permission.
I have an opportunity to explore a few Wikis: I noticed in the Counting Book the web page was designed with simplicity. I could relate to the page because its content is a kindergarten standard. There is only one page and some of the numbers do not have a picture. One thing I would do differently is create more pages. I would make sure every number has a pictorial representation. Each page would have multiples of tens since counting by tens is also a kindergarten standard. I quickly made connections to how I could create a Wiki similar to it using plane and solid figures. I taught the standard at the beginning of the year and most of my students was able to identify and state the characteristics of the figures. When I later assessed their knowledge about plane and solid figures, I realized they do not master the content. I would use the Wiki page to help my students create real-world examples of the plane and solid figures, providing them with an engaging learning activity. The students would bring objects from home and explain to the class what type of figure it is and identify the characteristics of the figure. I would take pictures of the objects and write a caption listing the characteristics to share on our on page, Shapes, shapes, and more shapes.
Primary Math was created by multiple teacher varying in grade levels, K-2. The website has multiple pages with sub-pages that provides real-world learning. The site also allows others to communicate through a blog. One thing I would do differently is provide more examples of patterns and numbers on the page.
Go West was organized by pages that related to each other. The content was created by students and some of the tools used was Bubbleshare and Blackboard. The teachers shared their reflections on the student’s learning experience. After exploring the website, I started to see how I could use Wiki to create a Web Quest about traveling on the Oregon Trail. This could be an excellent project-based learning activity to active engaged learning.
I have an opportunity to explore a few Wikis: I noticed in the Counting Book the web page was designed with simplicity. I could relate to the page because its content is a kindergarten standard. There is only one page and some of the numbers do not have a picture. One thing I would do differently is create more pages. I would make sure every number has a pictorial representation. Each page would have multiples of tens since counting by tens is also a kindergarten standard. I quickly made connections to how I could create a Wiki similar to it using plane and solid figures. I taught the standard at the beginning of the year and most of my students was able to identify and state the characteristics of the figures. When I later assessed their knowledge about plane and solid figures, I realized they do not master the content. I would use the Wiki page to help my students create real-world examples of the plane and solid figures, providing them with an engaging learning activity. The students would bring objects from home and explain to the class what type of figure it is and identify the characteristics of the figure. I would take pictures of the objects and write a caption listing the characteristics to share on our on page, Shapes, shapes, and more shapes.
Primary Math was created by multiple teacher varying in grade levels, K-2. The website has multiple pages with sub-pages that provides real-world learning. The site also allows others to communicate through a blog. One thing I would do differently is provide more examples of patterns and numbers on the page.
Go West was organized by pages that related to each other. The content was created by students and some of the tools used was Bubbleshare and Blackboard. The teachers shared their reflections on the student’s learning experience. After exploring the website, I started to see how I could use Wiki to create a Web Quest about traveling on the Oregon Trail. This could be an excellent project-based learning activity to active engaged learning.
Productivity tools are designed to help teachers and students plan, develop materials, communicate, and keep records. The tools allows teachers to form formative assessments to quickly check for understanding. This gives the teachers the opportunity to reflect and adjust instruction to better meet the needs of the students. These tools have also allowed educators a way to promote and encourage collaboration authentically in the development of projects and papers (Solomon and Schrum, 2014). In the video, Google Docs in the Classroom, the teacher explained how useful Google Doc was in helping her to collaborate with the students to improve their writings.
Google Apps offers an extension, Read&Write for Google Chrome, that allows students to highlight text and it will read it aloud to them. This is a very helpful tool for struggling readers or students with learning difficulties. Google Classroom provides students extra practice and resources to support learning. Productivity tools can reinforce learning for visual and auditory learners. The collaboration tools give teachers instant access to student’s work; this allows the teacher to help them in any areas of weakness.
Coggle and Gliffy fit into Bloom’s Taxonomy because it allows students to create and analyze diagrams. The sharing features gives the students the chance to collaborate with each other and with teachers. The level of engagement increases when a student’s learning is authentic and provides a global audience.
References
Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2014). Web 2.0 how-to for educators (2nd ed.). Eugene, OR. ISTE
Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2014). Web 2.0 how-to for educators (2nd ed.). Eugene, OR. ISTE