For this week we had to create a class wiki using wikispaces. Again I was nervous about this because I didn't know if it would be difficult to use the software or to even make a language lesson that would work with a wiki. But my fears were proved unfounded like they always are when it comes to technology used in this class.
The most difficult part of this assignment was deciding what to make the lesson on. I settled on a broad lesson that would truly span over the entire school year for intermediate language students but would first start with investigating a Latin American country and giving a report about it using web 2.0 tools. I did not want the students to write a boring report that would be dry and I would be the only one to read it. Rather I wanted to begin something that has the potential to become an online textbook like the one my professor has had his students create (click here to view it). If you want to look at my wiki click here.
Using the actual wikispaces site was easy but there were moments of difficulty. On the whole it is a straightforward and easy site. I was able to easily embed the smores poster I made, the thinglink and the voki. BUT I could not change the look of the wiki without purchasing an account (which I did not do). I would have liked to have made a wiki that had more of a Latin or Spanish "feel" to it. Also the directions for embedding a calendar were not clear and I needed my professor's help to actual embed it. In my estimation it should be just as clear from the wikispaces help topics how to embed a class calendar as a video; this is for school after all and deadlines are important! Finally, sometimes I found that my changes did not save or if they did I got messages that it wanted to revert to a page that was not saved right even though my last work was there as I had previously saved it. When I have my classroom I very well might use wikispaces because on the whole it was easy to use.
Now, how does this change teaching and learning? First it makes it about the students and what they want to learn and how they want to learn the information. While I, as the teacher, give them guidelines and parameters they actually must learn how to effectively find the information, process it, choose what is important and then communicate it. This is giving the students ownership over their learning, engaging them and moving them to higher order thinking. That is what we want, right? I hope this is what my kid's teachers want for them and what I want for my students.
The most difficult part of this assignment was deciding what to make the lesson on. I settled on a broad lesson that would truly span over the entire school year for intermediate language students but would first start with investigating a Latin American country and giving a report about it using web 2.0 tools. I did not want the students to write a boring report that would be dry and I would be the only one to read it. Rather I wanted to begin something that has the potential to become an online textbook like the one my professor has had his students create (click here to view it). If you want to look at my wiki click here.
Using the actual wikispaces site was easy but there were moments of difficulty. On the whole it is a straightforward and easy site. I was able to easily embed the smores poster I made, the thinglink and the voki. BUT I could not change the look of the wiki without purchasing an account (which I did not do). I would have liked to have made a wiki that had more of a Latin or Spanish "feel" to it. Also the directions for embedding a calendar were not clear and I needed my professor's help to actual embed it. In my estimation it should be just as clear from the wikispaces help topics how to embed a class calendar as a video; this is for school after all and deadlines are important! Finally, sometimes I found that my changes did not save or if they did I got messages that it wanted to revert to a page that was not saved right even though my last work was there as I had previously saved it. When I have my classroom I very well might use wikispaces because on the whole it was easy to use.
Now, how does this change teaching and learning? First it makes it about the students and what they want to learn and how they want to learn the information. While I, as the teacher, give them guidelines and parameters they actually must learn how to effectively find the information, process it, choose what is important and then communicate it. This is giving the students ownership over their learning, engaging them and moving them to higher order thinking. That is what we want, right? I hope this is what my kid's teachers want for them and what I want for my students.
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