Helping a teacher to use wikis
It
is known that the use of technology in the classroom has been a controversial
debate for the last decade. Parents, teachers, policy makers, and students
alike have weighed and argued the potential benefits versus the risks and
consequences of classroom technology, not only referring to the devices many
students personally own, but also when referring to the integration of Web 2.0
tools into the everyday education experience. It’s difficult to be 100% for the
use of educational technology all of the time, when there are so many
convincing arguments against it. Most teachers find a happy medium with
technology. It is useful in some situations, but a distraction in others. Educators
have to make the first step in the integration of technology in the classroom, because
technology is going to be in the future of Education and no one can stop it. In
this case Jane, a 6th grade teacher in the Ysleta Independent School District, made
the first move trying to integrate technology in her classroom. She decided to use
wikis in one of the projects of her class. Jane's students should made some online
research and collaboratively in groups write an essay on Wikispaces. There were
several problems in the scenario presented here, and Jane's experience of
teaching is not a warranty of a problem-free project when integrate technology
for the first time.
One
of the problems is that not all the students in a group worked about the same
in the project. "In one group, only one student was involved in writing
the essay. Other students made only minor editing". A possible solution to
this problem might be to create and distribute responsibilities into the group.
The idea is to create some strategies that use a variety of learning activities
to improve their understanding of the subject. Each member of a team is
responsible of learning what is taught which create an atmosphere of achievement.
Other
problem here is about tensions regarding ownership and credit. A possible
solution to this problem might be to apply collaborative learning strategies.
This learning involves students working in pairs or small groups to discuss
concepts, or find solutions to problems. This often occurs in a class session
after students are introduced to course material through readings or videos
before class, and/or through instructor lectures. Similar to the idea that two
or three heads are better than one, many instructors have found that using this
technique, students teach each other by addressing misunderstandings and
clarifying misconceptions.
And
finally, some groups create problems at the time of write, edit or delete
something due to a lack of coordination working on wikis. A possible solution
to this problem might be to establish good communication channels. The wiki
should be for as much communication between the group as possible, including
sharing and editing documents, posting meeting agendas and minutes, schedules,
progress reports, and group member contact information. Team members can visit
the site to review progress, view earlier documents, and communicate with other
team members.
Jorge Villarreal.
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