Week 5: What I've Learned

Well, as I’ve come to expect, this week I found out what I don’t know! I consider myself pretty tech savvy. Granted, I don’t own all the latest gadgets and gizmos.  I’m a single mom…my extra funds are spent on zebra throw pillows for a certain 10-year old.  However, I have been involved with computers and techno-type items throughout my business career.  I am becoming increasingly aware however of how much ‘stuff’ I left to the IT guys.  (Thanks to you all!)  I prepared Excel and Word documents and PowerPoint Presentations where I set-up the multi-media projectors, etc.  However, I had never given much thought to the blogs or wikis or websites.  My short involvement with website development left me less than excited about continuing in that line of work.  But this week (and during this term) I’m discovering the ease of developing blogs and wikis!

To be honest, I truthfully had no prior knowledge of wikis other than Wikipedia and Wikileaks (yikes!).  While I was quasi aware that Wikipedia was editable, I hadn’t given it much thought.  I certainly hadn’t thought about using a ‘wiki’ in a classroom.  As I am not teaching yet, I have never had the opportunity to use a wiki or a blog for that matter in a teaching environment.  But after researching these types of communication tools, I am really excited about their potential!

While learning about the various types of instruction and different types of learners, we have been reminded repeatedly that we must engage the students.  Now, all of us want to engage the students.  But sometimes it is more difficult than others.  Let’s face it; there is some material that is just BO-RING as my daughter would say!  So, as an educator I am always looking for the ‘hook’ to catch the students’ attention.  I think that wikis and blogs are just that….hooks!

In order for a student to learn, they must engage in the process of learning, right?  What a better way to engage than to participate in the development and presentation of the information!  Using a wiki, students can create a collaborative site that has interactive pieces.  Any visitor to the site can become a part of the creative process.  With guided instruction, the students can create a site that has them as the creator and developer of classroom projects.  In order to prepare the students for this type of work, we will introduce other sites that are currently using this technology.  After seeing other students working on these types of projects, my students will be able to apply what they are learning and start to develop their own class wiki.  There are incredible examples on-line and step-by-step instructions for classroom development.  We will start with ‘baby steps’ by developing a class concept of what we want our wiki to do, who will be our audience and what we want it to look like.  Once we have established these ideas as a group, then we can start the development process.

Many classrooms are using wikis now to display classroom projects, from science experiments to music appreciation.  The students are in charge of researching the content and presenting it.  They must work as a team and learn to edit one another’s work.  The must also learn to organize information.  Using a wiki is a great way to incorporate the standards for the discipline and for technology.  But more over, this type of student involvement engages the student and will most definitely help to foster their knowledge of the content and help them learn technology that is vital for their futures.

Learning is always an adventure.  The age we live in gives us the opportunity to learn in new and exciting ways!  I’m ready!