Wikis are exciting! A few months ago I had never heard of a wiki until I signed up for a class called Teaching and Learning in a Networked Classroom through PSU. Our teacher jutecht, explained that we would not be using blackboard but run through a wiki using wetpaint.com. He continued to explain what accounts to sign up for and we would be doing a lot of blogging, using a wiki, and creating a podcast. Oh yes, he then explained, we would be communicating with him in Bangkok, Thailand and please feel free to edit his text; unheard of! Had Scottie beamed me up to a new world
A Wiki is a combination between a Web site and a Word document. It can be read, has ease of editing, and groups can work collaboratively on the content. Each time a person makes changes to a wiki page, the revision becomes the current version and all older versions are stored.
Wikis are gaining headway in education as a tool for collaboration among students and educators in compiling data and working on group projects. The fabulous, The Flat Classroom Project and the Horizon Project, truly shows excellence in education! As I continue to search the web to learn more about Wikis in Education, there are many excellent sources to help educators get started. One such site Open content.org, is a rich source for resources on blogs and wikis in education, covering everything from district policies to how to use blogs and wikis to facilitate learning.
George Siemens in Knowing Knowledge, states "To know today means to be connected. Knowledge moves to fast for learning to be only a product. We used to acquire knowledge by bringing it close to ourselves. We were said to process it-to have it exist in our heads. We can no longer seek to possess all needed knowledge personally. We must store it in our friends or within technology."
My husband has a very demanding position where he is heavily involved in committee work, negotiating contracts, supervising staff and creating new projects. He complains that he does not have enough time in the day and gets up earlier and earlier to get his job accomplished; a day off may mean being behind in upwards of a hundred e-mails. He is a man of "tradition" in methods of education and doing business; new learning is "painful." While doing my research on wikis, I quietly suggested he might like to take a look at wikis....it just might help focus energy and resources. Even quieter, he replied, "I'll would have a look."
Regardless of whether a wiki is used in education, business,
or government, it is a great tool for collaborating and synthesizing information.
I don't know what I like better. The blog, wiki's, or both. They are really so much fun and I love the interaction. It sickens me that my 2 boys sit behind me on the couch and ask me what I'm doing, how I'm doing it, and why aren't they having as much fun at school on the computer? I could just scream. So, it's up to me to teach them I guess, along with some workshops at the Apple store (at my cost). Unacceptable with what we pay for taxes and teacher salaries (I'm a teacher too). On a bad day I complain to the school and school board only to fall on deaf ears. I would really like to know what administrators consider professional development if they are not taking courses such as these. I just cannot fathom that they would not do more to get our kids up to speed with technology. I was a tech teacher and was disgusted at how my hands were tied with all the blocked sites and programs. I couldn't teach anything relevant for the most part except typing programs, and to go on to funbrain.com. There has got to be an answer for all this somewhere. I'm still looking............
ReplyDeleteI have really enjoyed following The Flat Classroom Project as well. It seems to me like we just have to emerse ourselves in the tools, as we are in this class, to gain understanding and skill. The next step, though, is our students. How comfortable are we all becoming with that notion?
ReplyDeleteGreat post and thoughtful comments. I was thinking that our students at the college level are more comfortable with this technology than the teachers. Some faculty are very cutting edge, so I don't intend to say they are all dinosaurs (!!), but others have an aversion, yes, "aversion" to technology. They ask the same questions over and over on how to do something, they feel it to be a chore many times, instead of seeing the value, potential, and global impact technology can have.
ReplyDeleteWhen training faculty on Blackboard, that's the platform we use at CCSNH, Paul Ambrose and I spend most of the time showcasing all of the "cool" things the faculty can do - we're trying to rustle up some excitement, trying to engage them so they can see how this will help them (for example, an electronic gradebook or posting announcements and assignments, not losing printed copies of handouts, etc). We also show them how online learning has pedagogical elements that cannot be replicated in a 50 minute class session. In an online course, every student sits in the front seat and has to participate. The barriers of student shyness or the need to reflect before "raising your hand" are eliminated. If we can engage their passion to use the technology, they will learn it. If we simply showed them how to post an announcement, they'd be checking their watches and heading for the door.
So, in my work, the students are pushing the teachers to get with it - hopefully they will!