Instead of looking for a blog which talks about wikis in education, I found an interview which shows me the big idea of wikis in education. Unlike blog which focus on sharing and communicating, wiki lays stress on one project and all the work should emphasize on the one idea. Thus, Wiki is useful for both teachers and students, because it is can help teachers to develop curriculum, syllabus, and students’ assignments. Additionally, students’ group works benefit a lot from wiki.
When comparing with the traditional conference, e-mail brings us more convenient ways to discuss school’s work, but we are overwhelmed by tons of e-mails sometimes. Fortunately, we import wiki in studying. Teachers are supposed to develop curriculum or syllabus on one platform. Which, in fact, speed the process of editing any curriculum. Furthermore, the current content can be reviewed in the future. Like the article indicates, “we were able to pass on the materials to the next set of teachers the following year, so that instead of reinventing the wheel.” (http://www.futurechanges.org/2008/04/10/interview-the-state-of-wikis-in-education).
For the students who work on groups, wiki helps efficiently organize the group work. The ways that wiki helps group work concentrate on group management, previously review, and tracking strategy. Group management means the wiki requires the group members work on the whole project coordinately. The management skill such as wiki “pulls” can operate the project dependently. Therefore, it is not necessary for student to e-mail each other which is considered to be wasteful of time. Also, the wiki offers previous review that comes from different resources in the project, so teachers can comment all the time rather than on the final one. Our blackboard resource is an example of “comment on final one”. Once we post on the blackboard articles, it is supposed to be the final one which misses the process. The last part of wiki’s merit is about the tracking feature. This reminds me the RRS feed which also has tracking feature. The difference is the wiki can track the sources that others have already used. As a result, they may turn to other resources that may help, which is important for a group to have a perfectible project.
I definitely agree with you! Wikis is so easy to manipulate and it is one of the best for sharing information and communication. I also like the fact that you have mentioned the advantages for both teachers and students. Students can work in groups without having any communication problem as long as you have basic computing knowledge. In addition, teachers can also interact with their students and guide them to where they want. From my point of view, Wikis is a great educational tool for group works and communication which will benefit even more 21st century classrooms.
ReplyDeleteHello Lina,
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned in your post the following "Our blackboard resource is an example of “comment on final one”": it is indeed true that final versions of assignments are posted on Blackboard and graded as such. Wiki allows students to continually modify and expand their post as they grow their knowledge on a particular topic. To me, one of the best feature of wiki besides its simplicity is the fact that it makes the act of learning an endless process that can evolve concretelly with time. Good point!
that's right I always edit my post several times before post it on blackboard because it can't be edited once I post it. That's why it is better to use wiki.
ReplyDelete