This is how I feel about Web 2.0 - I am struggling to get up on the bank, and occasionally I fall back into the water, but I keep trying to reach solid ground.
The educational use of Wikis is probably as broad as the users' imaginations. I have used them within classes as an adjunct to blogs where students work collaboratively in groups to create their own understanding of passages of text which the rest of the class can then share. It can be surprisingly time-consuming but the benefits do outweigh the cost. As time goes on and students [and their teachers] become more comfortable with the process and the technology, the rewards will become more immediately obvious. Teachers can review student contributions quite easily with this tool - its quality, quantity and the time at which it was submitted. But more significant is the peer-to-peer learning which wikis encourage: students become critics as they check others' work, and they become teachers as they offer alternative viewpoints or suggest further discovery via alternative resources. I can see how wikis could be a terrific method for engaging students in a number of subject areas. They could include glossaries, FAQs about a topic, study guides, art galleries etc. and in so many formats e.g. video, sound files, etc. Wikis offer the immediacy which young people today demand. They allow students an equal voice in an ongoing discussion.
Ning is a social networkling platform which groups people by special interest. It appears to offer the facilitator a greater degree of control over membership than Facebook does. I have an issue with Nings inasmuch as they are about to be overtaken by the dreaded moneylust - i.e. they will no longer be free. How this will effect the groups already formed I have no idea [ who will required to pay, the facilitator or the members?], but it does create another barrier to their ready use. This has important implications for educational use. Individual students will not be in a position to pay for use and schools may well be unable to make such a financial commitment.
Ning is a social networkling platform which groups people by special interest. It appears to offer the facilitator a greater degree of control over membership than Facebook does. I have an issue with Nings inasmuch as they are about to be overtaken by the dreaded moneylust - i.e. they will no longer be free. How this will effect the groups already formed I have no idea [ who will required to pay, the facilitator or the members?], but it does create another barrier to their ready use. This has important implications for educational use. Individual students will not be in a position to pay for use and schools may well be unable to make such a financial commitment.
As a learner myself, I was formerly an internet user predominantly for the purpose of information retrieval. Now I am more likely to make use of Web 2.0 tools as well.
I have read quite a few very thought-provoking pieces from Ning groups connected with my branch of professional interest and would certainly consider joining some of those discussions as a member. I will definitely use Wikis in my teaching where they are a great way to bring together a wide range of data and link it all with ongoing discussion about a unit of work, whilst including wordbanks,glossaries and links to further readings. I am keen to pursue blogs for my own use and for use in the classroom. I am thrilled with my RSS feeds, making delivery of updated information so readily accessible. I am working on creating a website to combine many of the wonders on the web for our students in one place. I have enjoyed the wonders of Google docs and use it often. I see many beneifts in Flikr as a source for critical analysis. As a result of all this immersion I now find myself questioning the relevance and suitability of many subject areas' "research" tasks and would like to offer alternatives which would, I think, "engage" the students to a greater degree and hopefully would result in more meaningful learning.
I have read quite a few very thought-provoking pieces from Ning groups connected with my branch of professional interest and would certainly consider joining some of those discussions as a member. I will definitely use Wikis in my teaching where they are a great way to bring together a wide range of data and link it all with ongoing discussion about a unit of work, whilst including wordbanks,glossaries and links to further readings. I am keen to pursue blogs for my own use and for use in the classroom. I am thrilled with my RSS feeds, making delivery of updated information so readily accessible. I am working on creating a website to combine many of the wonders on the web for our students in one place. I have enjoyed the wonders of Google docs and use it often. I see many beneifts in Flikr as a source for critical analysis. As a result of all this immersion I now find myself questioning the relevance and suitability of many subject areas' "research" tasks and would like to offer alternatives which would, I think, "engage" the students to a greater degree and hopefully would result in more meaningful learning.
How can Web 2.0 assist in improving the learning outcomes for all students?
As educators, we are required to reach every student. We need to consider how tasks are set, and to find different ways to engage students. Web 2.0 can be a great means to achieve this end. Because the technology is part of our students' everyday reality, the teacher's role is to blend its use with the teaching and learning outcomes of the set curriculum. This is not to say that every task or topic must contain an ICT component. But when we choose Web 2.0, we need to apply the same differentiations as in any other task - it offers learners a number of different ways to develop their understanding, to present their findings, to display their knowledge. If we address Bloom's Digital Taxonomy in designing courses, then Web 2.0 allows wonderful opportunities for students to work visually and creatively in a medium with which they are naturally comfortable. Students should all be capable of the lower order, elementary skills and I think that most will be capable of the higher order skills involved in posting and publishing. It has been my experience that students enjoy using Web 2.0 tools - I have seen them give up their lunchtimes to create Edublogs for units of work which they knew would not be included in their end of term report marks! The trick now will be for us to make them critical enough to want to produce and publish better work.
No comments:
Post a Comment