Saturday, June 9, 2012

You Have to See This


In my journeys online, I recently came across an extraordinary example of a teacher using wikis with her students. Not only is there a class wiki in which lots of class assignments are posted, but also every individual student in the class creates a wiki for posting work. Take a look at the main wiki and then explore at least one student’s work to see how this all works. It will take some time to explore around, but it is well worth it. Doing so will give you an excellent idea of how effective use of the technology creates an incredibly powerful, engaging learning and sharing environment for students. In fact, consider how public students’ accomplishments are by virtue of the wiki tool. In addition, the teacher has at her fingertips students’ work to assess their progress throughout the year. Here is the link to get to the main wiki. 


You will find on the homepage, a movie the students created. It is a trailer for a longer movie they produced. I have embedded the trailer in hopes that once you see the work, you will be even more motivated to explore the class wiki and individual students’ wikis.



This movie will give you an idea of how inventive and expressive these students are.

Once you get to the main wiki and have explored it, take the time to explore individual students' wikis to see what they are writing and how they are inserting their own multimedia into their wikis. Note that that students are also building a blog off their wiki pages. Additionally, spend time to see how the teacher has placed on her wiki the following information: organizational schedules, tips for writing on a wiki, and assignment guidelines.

Be sure to leave some comments. Let us know what you discovered. Has exploring the teacher's wiki and the students' wikis given you a sense of the power of technology to engage students in learning and to promote their understanding of curricular objectives? What is your takeaway message after looking into what this one teacher is doing with her students?


4 comments:

amymccauley said...

Thank you for your great observations about my class wiki. My students love using this tool to get their content to the world. Any advice, comments greatly welcomed :)

Judy said...

Amy, I have been exploring teachers' uses of wikis, and yours is about the best I have seen in terms of students using the tool and integrating all of the wikis in one place for viewers to find. Bravo!

Jamee Freitag said...

I think this is a great way to get students educationally engaged through technology outside of the classroom. Not only does this serve as a reminders board, but also their own individualized portfolio. I also loved the trailer for the class movie. It was of professional quality, another skill I'm sure many of my students would love to develop. Although I am not a classroom teacher, I feel as though many of the teachers in my school should begin implementing technological tools for their students, especially in this day and age.

pab said...

This is a great way to make sure that each student plays an important part in daily activities and special projects. It teaches them to work together as a team and to inspire each other to do their best. Not only are they enthusiastic about learning, but they are being taught technology skills that will prepare them for the future.

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