Sunday, March 1, 2015

Post #2 - Judging the Quality of Wikis and Non-vetted Sites

I have not used a Wiki before so I did not have my student's use them when I was in the classroom. However, I think it would be good resource.  I think students need to utilize the technology that allows them to be more collaborative.  Teachers will need to provide detailed examples so students will use the resource correctly. I think demonstrating the use of a Wiki to the class would be my first step. 


6 comments:

  1. I agree students need to use tools that are more collaborative since that is the world we live in. That is why a wiki would be a good tool but there would need to be ground rules and I think the comments need to be moderated in advance for younger kids. In one of my earlier posts, I mentioned that I use a program that allows messaging and posting comments but I had to disable because the students used it not to collaborate, but to insult each other. However, we're talking about 4th and 5th graders. I'm sure it would be much different with the older grades.

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    1. Hello Karen,

      Once you disabled the tool how did the students respond?

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    2. Depending on the platform, you can take a variety of tactics. For collaboration, the group (hopefully) is not berating one another. So, leave it on for collaborating, then shut it down for sharing...if you need to. The other option, again, depending on the platform, is moderating comments. That is, the owner/host of the wiki (or blog) must approve ALL comments before they're posted. This doesn't prevent comments from being made (although the host can forward the comment to the teacher for discipline), but it does prevent it from going public.

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  2. Wow Karen, that isn't good! I think that is a big problem that has happened a lot. I wonder how many people shy away from this stuff because that is such a serious issue?

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  3. Hello Judith,
    Like you I have not had the opportunity to use a wiki. I know for me a couple of my challenges are learning how to use a new technological tool and applying the use of that tool to my day-to-day tasks and in some cases it is frustrating when I am unable to perform a function using a new tool, which may result in not using the new tool as much or exploring its possibilities.
    In one of our readings “Why Wikis? Student Perceptions of Using Wikis in Online Coursework” In this article students responded positively to the benefits of wikis being used as an instructional tool however one of the drawbacks of PBwiki (one of the wikis used) was that it was not user friendly, i.e. could not drag or drop photos in wiki, format text, etc., if students where to encounter issues with the use of a wiki how would you address that issue so that their experience would be positive?

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    1. Part of it is working with the tool yourself. This is the primary reason I have you use all of these tools. Sometimes I feel the need to provide all the instructions so that you'll have an easier time (and give me good evals ;-); however, I should give you minimal support and let you figure it out on your own. That way, you can anticipate problems your students may have and adjust your lesson and instruction.

      I've shown you Wikispaces, and it seems you've worked with PBWorks. You'll have to research other platforms to find the most kid-friendly version. "Best wikis for young children" (or something similar) would be a good Google search phrase to get you started.

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