Blog 2- Wikis and Collaborative Learning

 

Today’s generation of students are immersed in electronic communications, regularly using e-mail, instant messaging, blogs and other electronic systems to talk with one another (Kent, 2010). As one of these students, I believe the use of wikis and collaborative learning within classrooms is essential and would enhance student understanding and knowledge through social feedback and discussion.

Due to the constant changing of computer-based technologies, the way information is communicated must also change; therefore, the way teaching is conducted within schools must change as well. Teachers today face an array of new choices, about how to integrate communication technologies into instructional practices and manage outside-classroom professional responsibilities (Kent, 2010). Kent (2010, p. 211) identifies five uses for electronic communication that teachers can use: “teaching interactively, sharing information, building learning communities, publishing student work, and energizing student writing”.

There are several electronic communications that teachers can use to interact with their students and their parents, such as school e-mail, teacher and classroom websites, blogs, online discussions and wikis. These programs are known as social networks, which involve sharing personal information and profiles online through text messaging, chatting, and blogging (Kent, 2010). Other teachers may like to hold regular online office hours; times when they are able to answer student questions and discuss class assignments electronically (Kent, 2010). This type of communication leads to not only collaborative learning, where students work together on individual sections of a group problem and discover key concepts for themselves, but also creates collaborative learning environments for both teachers and students. However, some social networks are not appropriate to use as educational communication between teachers and students. I believe that social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, would distract students from the given task. Facebook is too public for students to post or discuss school activities or assessment, for ideas and work can be plagiarised by anyone, leading to arguments and misunderstandings. Facebook is also one of the main contributors of Cyber Bullying; a major concern amongst teachers and schools. Though, if teachers still wish to use Facebook, then they use it at their own risk of producing a poor student learning environment.

As a future teacher I would not use a blog to communicate with my students about school assessment or activities, for blogs consume a lot of time and effort to maintain their presentation and information. A simple e-mail between students would be more than efficient to effectively communicate to students and discuss their ideas or problems. Though, on the whole, the use of social networks could considerably help student understanding of information that is not only conducted inside of school, but also outside.

 

Multimedia Used

 

Blog 2 uses two different graphic organisers to display the many uses of wikis and collaborative learning within a classroom. The first graphic organiser was created using wordle and shows the various functions of wikis and colaborative learning, whereas the second graphic organiser was created in a mind map program. It uses the word wiki has its' main concept and expands on the diferent applications that it can produce. 

 

Multimedia References