Learning Engagement  Activity (Wiki) – Week 3

I recently have created a few Wiki spaces for other subjects throughout my university courses. This is one of the Wiki's that my group and I have completed: http://numeracygroup2012.wikispaces.com/ 

This table presents the positives, negatives and interesting facts of having a Wiki for the classroom.

Positive	Negative	Interesting
With no presence of a Wiki, in a traditional classroom no student sees another piece of work by another student which limits points of views by other people. With a Wiki students are able to actively engage in collaborative learning both in terms of viewing each other’s work and seeing the quality of other’s work.	Does not have all the functionality of word document – which students are used to and might not understand ways around it.	It connects the classroom to people around the around which can brake stereotypes.
By allowing students to view and critique others work online in a Wiki they will be able to develop higher level of critical thinking and being able to defend their views when being critiqued by others.	Open to SPAM and Vandalism if not managed properly.	Different ways to present information.
Students are able to build stronger friendships through collaboratively working together through education.	Requires Internet connectivity to collaborate, but technologies to produce print versions of articles are improving	Can share and provide links to others along with videos.
In a traditional classroom students would be given the information and they would be required to report on it. Being a Wiki and having access to the internet the teacher may have encouraged students to find their own research on the topic in which promotes connectivism.	The flexibility of a wiki's structure can mean that information becomes disorganised. As a wiki grows, the community plans and administers the structure collaboratively.
Wiki’s can promote creativity because it is ‘their’ page and because they feel as though they own it they will work harder to contribute to it.
Allows students to be post ready for university. This is because not only in universities but Wiki’s are becoming increasingly popular throughout society.
Students have a better range of ideas to demonstrate understanding in different ways
Students can work on this particular piece of work at home along with communicating with friends and the teacher at times.
Provides a lot of responses for classroom work e.g. Frequently asked questions will be answered here instead of class time which will save time.
A Wiki can be used for a classroom discussion or debate along with sharing web resources.

These reasons are evident enough to consider the incorporation of Wiki’s into a classroom.

http://www.bc.edu/offices/ides/teaching_tools/bcshare_groups/wikis/benefits.html

http://suite101.com/article/5-strategies-for-using-wikis-in-the-classroom-a124331

http://www.teachinghacks.com/wiki3/index.php?title=Wikis

http://pjppreswiki.wikispaces.com/6.+Disadvantages+to+wikis

 Learning Engagement Activities (Blog) - Week 3

There are many advantages and disadvantages along with interesting factors to do with blogging within a classroom context. This will be demonstrated in a PMI chart which will weigh the positives up with the negatives whilst highlighting the intriguing information.

PMI Chart on having blogs in the classroom

Positives	Minuses	Interesting
Able to freely write with no critiquing of others – expression of ideas.	Blogging can introduce cyber bullying to students by other students.	The ‘teacher control’ can be varied to a lot of control or very little depending on the classroom
Versatile – can be used on any form of smartphone, tablet etc. It is just another website, so children can read the blogs on the way to home which is convenient for them in order to practice and control their time management.	Limited flexibility – Only a few designs and themes making most of the blog sites the same.	Only displays information that you want to display. You can share or hide as much information as you want to protect security.
It allows the freedom to speak either in 1st or 3rd person with no limitations as long as its ain regards to the question.	It can be inflicting with other websites which are not associated with a Google account.	Can incorporate links to other sites, add pictures etc to allow the reader to gain a better understanding.
While blogging, you are close to a lot of other resources that are available and are only a click away!	Blogging infringes privacy undermines and communication between people
Easy for people to use who are not technologically savvy and no need for installation of programs along with being free to use.
It is not public like Facebook is.
The content being displayed will be valued by others who are working with the same information which makes it valued.
Covers an arrange of learning theories
Allows students to respond and share

This PMI chart has highlighted the positives, minuses and the interestesting facts which indicated the usefulness of a Blog within a classroom.

References:

http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2004/nt_2004_08_23_blogging.htm

http://daparky.com/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-blogging/

http://www.slideshare.net/guestfb1cc458/blogging-in-education

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_advantages_and_disadvantages_of_blogs

Learning Engagement Activity: Week 2 - Wiki activity reflection

 

Engagement Activity 4: Should phones be allowed in the classroom (Understanding a Wiki)?

 

My personal experience with this Wiki enabled myself to not only participate in a controversial topic but I was able to reshape my ideas to better reflect with de Bono's 6 thinking hats which was enabling myself to think in a different state of mind. I believe being able to think in a different state of mind allows you to create a more in-depth understanding of a topic. Not only this but I was also able to connect with other students who have posted on the Wiki which is beneficial to view what another student has written along with being able to understand their reasoning of the topic under the 6 thinking hats - especially when they use one of the hats that you didn't use or 'think under'. This also deters 'copying', you can agree with someone, but it makes everything unique due to the fact that it shows every ones responses. The only issue that may arise is confliction may arise between people who are opinionated and who are dedicated to their beliefs because with assignments and their own work no one besides maybe the teacher will look at it. This can be easily avoided through letting everyone know that everyone is right in what their opinion is. There is also an issue of cyber bullying which may occur. The drawbacks that may prevent this Wiki is the actual use of it for the teacher, setting it up, ensuring only 'your class' can see it, along with the time and energy it takes to be the administrator if you are only beginning to use it but of course over time this will change also.

First thing you can tell is that by entering information onto this Wiki you need to know information on a phone and how it would be either beneficial or not or in between. If this was used for students, students would need to find their own information because the topic doesn't provide the information for them and because of this, it demonstrates connectivism. Students will know where to find the information as opposed to knowing ALL the information off the top of their head. Another learning theory is incorporating more technology within the classroom which suits the learners better seeing as they have grown up with technology and are captivated by it as well. This is a theory brought upon by Prenskey which is to teach children with technology since it controls most of their life.

As a teacher minding students through the use of blogging on the internet for their first experience in an educational setting I would reward the positive responses etc to Wiki's that students produced. I will also credit and reward the positive work samples that students produced. This is incorporating the learning theory of behaviourism. As for the negative work, depending on the seriousness, will either be ignored or punished if it does come to this.

By allowing students to use Wiki it will allow constructivism to be used where students understand Wiki's but in order to present relevant information for the class they are to research for information, knowing where to look. In form of a Wiki it applies to the learning style of Cognitivism as well. This is because the students methodology understands about how to use a Wiki, so what they do is derive from previous experiences using other computer programs (internet explorer etc). After using the Wiki more frequently they develop internal rules for proper continued use this becomes the theoretical component of congnitivism. In conclusion, including a Wiki into the classroom will allow students to be included in these learning theories which will enhance their learning.

Engagement Activities for Week 1

Learning Activity 1: Learning Styles

Everyone has a preference in learning, which is called a learning style. This is not an actual measure in what you are as an individual but an understanding of how you learn best. After undertaking the test which determines the type of learn you are it stipulated that I am primarily an active learner and a sequential learner. As stated by Felder and Soloman, as an active learner I prefer to learn by "retain and understand information best by doing something active with it". As for the sequential learner which has been described by Felder and Soloman as "sequential learners tend to gain understanding in linear steps, with each step following logically from the previous one". This is an insight learnt by myself in the way I learn more effectively.

In a classroom, you may get students to take an abridged version of this test to determine what different learning styles may consist within your classroom. This being said, once you do find the learning styles of students in the classroom you can support them by creating activities and explanations that cater to their needs. For example; if a student is a visual learner (which is common to have a lot of in a classroom) then provides students with visual demonstrations or experiments to explain something as opposed to simply explaining because using visual aids is the best way they learn. Kinaesthetic learners (hands-on) allow them to actually participate (along with other students) with the experiment, because they learn best by doing the activity. As long as you have arrange of different activities and explanations to cater for the different learning styles within the classroom throughout the year, then and only then have you supported the range of learning styles which will optimise the learning produced by the students.

This can be done in a form of a Prezi, a Wiki or by Blogging. Each of these has a certain element to it which will support your learners. Using a Prezi will allow you to be in 'control' of the students learning. A Prezi is similar to a PowerPoint but is more interactive. You can design the Prezi so students basically follow the step-by-step lessons or unit of work, working through it at their own pace by following the instructions and clicking on the links provided. This can be done with Wiki's and by Blogging as well but there are factors which may require the teacher to be more technologically savvy then what is needed by the Prezi by setting up the controls so it only includes the classroom instead of other people outside of the classroom. Another factor is only allowing students to see others' work when they are required to, by doing this will deter students looking up other students on the Blogger or Wiki site and simply copying their ideas. These are 3 examples of ICT's which can help scaffold and support learners better assuming they have been setup correctly.

The profiling questions to achieve the result of catering for everyone's preferences that, as a teacher, I would use are:

·    When you learn and having fun what are you doing within the class? (Provide examples like demonstrations, experiments etc.)

·    What parts of work do you not like? (Elaborate on this question, ask if it is because they do not understand the work or not an interest)

·    Do you learn better in groups (collaborative learning) or individually? (if they choose groups, ask a follow up question - which people do you feel that you work sensibly but the most effective with)

·    What do you feel your good at and what needs to be strengthen (this is to determine whether the student needs help in certain areas if it comes to it)

The students entering school now most likely have had a great deal of experience with technology. This being said they have been amused with it and have had that affiliation with it. It is because of this by using ICT, as teachers, will be able to gain that level of engagement from students assuming it’s not the consistently the same ICT being used over again with different information. Onto the main answer though, it is seen to have multiple learning styles within a classroom and ICT's can accommodate for this because there are multiple websites which will cater for every students need assuming the teacher is willing to look and search for them. For example; if you are doing chemical science, you can show students the reaction between chemicals on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRmPa2OSBa0), one example could be of mentos and coke which makes the coke erupt once the mentos is placed into the bottle. There is also TeacherTube (http://www.teachertube.com/) as well which will provide more educational based demonstrations or videos etc. This caters for the visual learners, but can cater for others as well due to it being stimulating and something out of the ordinary. As for kinaesthetic learners there are learning games which provide fun whilst learning for example the website http://www.mathsisfun.com/games/index.html allows students to learn through games.

Engagement Activity 3: Reflection on Prensky's ideas

The Role that technology plays in education for students.

The 'old way' of teaching students has lost its meaning and is becoming less effective for the students of the 21st century. The report implies that students of this present generation are not engaged to learn to their full potential with the current ways of teaching, in order to reach the students you are to first use technology in ways that will captivate them because it is something they have had thorough experience with and engages them - for example they are not bored on their iPods or mobile phones or Xbox’s. This exposure to technology is every day for students and will forever increase; this means the way we teach should be changed as well to suit the needs of our learners.

In regards to the 'enrage or engage' argument, there is a profound truth to it. Prensky (2005) raises an important outlook which has been drawn upon with his own experience and it seems very plausible. The argument has a coherent perspective in which has makes sense because students are captivated by technology and are always amazed at the amount of ICT they still have not seen. If we teach students while using technology through ICTs, which they are use to, they will understand it quicker, engage them more then the 'normal way of teaching' and prepare them for the future since majority of jobs require the worker to be computer literate.

Engagement Activity 4: Reflection on Connectivism

Siemen's (2012) point of view was that instead of 'arming' students with knowledge in the situation where they will recall this information and apply it to a situation which is done in schools now. The problem with this though is that not every situation can be covered, this is because once students leave school there are so many different things they will need to know and some of the knowledge that was learnt by the student by 'cramming' for a test would be invalid. Instead he poses the idea of teaching students where to source the information from as opposed to learning parts of the information. This will provide students a broader range of capabilities and a wider spectrum of interpreting knowledge along with having access to more information than what was being learnt. The one fall back of this though is when students source the information they must be aware to source it from current documents instead of documents from 10 years ago.

In reality, it is applicable to implement this learning theory. It allows students to be more ready for when leaving school because information is everywhere around us and now thanks to modern technology it is a lot more accessible through phones, tablets and other items.

Personally, I would consider this within any classroom for the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. This seems to be the perfect way to keep up the trend of how society and technology is ever changing.

An example of this is evident in mathematics; students were taught and understand the concept of area of a square and circle. Students are educated in the theory by Siemens (2012) to find information for them because they know where to find the information for the next question; which is to find the area of an oval.

Another example is in a Japanese class, every student will have an idea of what origami is so the teacher may ask her students to create anything from origami in which students will know instinctively that a way to find out this is either to go to the library or to search on the internet.