Week 3 - Creating a Wiki

It was very good practice exploring the wiki creation pages.  I felt it may have been more beneficial  if I had a little more guidance on setting up the wiki using a real life classroom example.  I was very slow to work out the different pages and creating links.

Positives

• the wiki did enable me to construct a seperate page for each class assignment, I choose to  separte by grade.  The pages were titled by grades so there would be no confusion over direction of where to go for students entering the wiki.
• I was able to upload photos from my computer, therefore taking photos in class and uploading these into the class wiki will give a sense of accomplishment and pride to individual classes.
• I was also able to upload videos from external sources (You Tube) and from my computer also.  Again class video's could therefore be shared on the wiki.
• The classroom wiki enables all students to write comments and see others comments.  This is encouraging collaborative learning, learning from each other.
• also encourages literacy
• ongoing creation of the wiki is possible.  Adding new projects/discussions/class planning for activities or events. 
• Easy to edit if students want to change a comment.

 

Minuses:

• extra reading for each student which may increase overall workload
• not all students may have access to a computer so some students may be at a disadvantage
• sometimes can accidently delete information from the wiki
• It can be very slow when moving up and down a page.
• may reduce face to face time discussing issues.

Interesting/Implications:

• Pre-service or newly graduated teachers may not yet  have learned the many potentials for the use of wikis in their subject area.  This will take extra planning on the teachers part.
• Safety and ethical considerations when publishing on the wiki need to be embedded into it's use also.
• parents will need to be updated on the use of wikis in schools and computer use at home negotiated.