Wiki Spaces For Online Learning

Ok so we are down to the business end of the term. I have used  SWOT to analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of Wiki spaces as an online learning space. Here's what I found.

Strengths

It is easy to create and edit so that even those who do not have strong ICT skills can use and navagate.
It allows for images, data, videos, power points and most forms of information to be uploaded and stored in one location
The data is never lost. Data is easily retrieved via the wiki recycling bin.
The learner magager can monitor and support online usage
It provides a great space for group work (collaboration).
It provides a great space to solve problem-based activities.
It allows for interdpendent thinking (habit of mind Dol 5)by establishing a space where group thinking activities and a sense of working for the benefit of the group skills can be formed (Mazarno & Pickering, 1997).
It has three levels of security.
                                             Privite Site -No visitors, only those with permission can view
                                             Public Site- Anyone can view this site & it's content , however, they cannot hold accounts on this site without permission
                                             Open Site- Anyone can view, add, delete and edit all content and information
HOWEVER: Seperate pages, files and content can be locked as private so that others cannot view, edit or delete these pages.
                                       

Weaknesses

Does not have an appealing look and feel design.
Unable to design to look and feel of space.
Data can be edited by others
Unable to view other wiki members online
Cannot edit data at the same time as someone else
Would not be an effective learning space if productive pedagogy and scaffolding were amiss
Would not be effective if explicit instructions into it's use and function as a learning site is not explained
Would not be effective if students were not clear about the tasks (Dol1)
Would not be effective if expectations of usage were not explained (Essential skill 1)

Opportunities

Students are able to continue working work outside of school hours.
Allows for interdependent thinking (habits of mind Dol 5).
Callabortive learning with class members, students from other schools nation and world wide (Productive Pedagogy Connectedness)(Constructivism).
Able to gather information from videos, and images assisting visual learners (Learning Styles).
Provides opportunity for 'Productive Pedagogy' Supportive Classroom
                                                      -Social support
                                                      - Academic engagement
                                                      - Student direction
Provides opportunity for 'Productive Pedagogy' Recognition of Difference
                                                      -Cultural diversity
                                                      -Inclusivity
                                                      - Active citizenship
                                                      -Group identity
Provides opportunity for 'ProductivePedagogy' Connectedness
                                                                            -Background knowledge
                                                                            - Connectedness to the world
Provides opportunity for 'Productive Pedagogy' Intellectual Quality
                                                                            -Substansive conversations
                                                                            -Metalanguage
Provides opportunity for 'Reciprocal Teaching' through question generation and clarification
Provides opportunity for 'Augumentation" by taking a position and giving a reason for that position (Social & Cognitive Constructivism)
Allows for 'Generativity' (the sense of responsibility to share knowledg and skills)(Social Development)
Provides opportunity for 'Intersubjectivity' as the learning space produces socially shared experiences, understanding and mutual engagement (Social Development)
Provides ooportunity for 'Socially Shared Cognition' by providing a space to solve group problems and to solve problems as a group member
Provides ooportunity for stregnthening 'Formal Operations' by solving abstract problems and coming up with hypothesis (Cognitive Development)
Provides ooportunity for engaging and interesting tasks, information, textx, media and so on.. therefore, students may percieve tasks as valuable and interesting (Dol 1)
Provies ooportunity for 'Evaluation' by making judgments about the value of ideas or information (Bloom's Taxonomy)
Provides ooportunity for 'Synthesis' by allowing students to put all of the groups information together to form a whole (Bloom's Taxonomy)
Provides opportunity for 'Thinking and communicating with clarity & precision (Habits of Mind Dol5)
Provides opportunity for Essential Skills 6. Descriptive encouragement, letting the students know when they are on task(on task acklowedgement). Essential Skill 8. Redirective learning, when topic or group work is going off tasks teachers can provide redirection (off task correction).

Note:

All of the above opportunities will only occur if the wiki space has been scaffolded, and supported with great pedagogy, interesting content, and explicit instructions on it's functuality.

Threats    

That if the right prvacy setting is not set, sensitive or personal information can be leaked from the site.
Cyberbullying may take place if monitoring of the site is not sufficiant.

 

Safe, Legal & Ethical Issue's

Safety is important on any site where the public can view and obtain personal information. In addition, as previosly stated, issues involving cyber bullying may create an unsafe environment for the students affected.
Legality is an important part of ensuring students make attributions and reference to images, video's and information that has been retrieved from the internet or other forms of media/text.
Additionally, a letter may need to be sighned by the parents to obtain permission for the student to access the site.
Ethical issues may arise if students have not been given explicit instruction on the proper uses of the space. Students may need to sign a contract or a letter of aknowledgement so that they understand their rights and the rights of others using the shared site.
                                       



References

Big Dog Little Dog. (2012). Blooms taxonomy of learningdomains: The three types of learning. Retrieved from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html#cognitive

Marzano, R.J & Pickering, D.J. (1997). Dimensions of learning teacher’s manual (2^nd ed. ) Aurora, CO: Mid-continent Regional Educational Laboratry.

O'Donnell, Dobozy, Bartlett, Bryer, Reeve, Smith. (2012). Educational psychology. Milton, Queensland, Australia: John Wiley & Sons Australia Ltd.
Education Queensland. (n.d.). Better behaviour better learning: Essential skills for classroom management. Brisbane, QLD: Queensland Government

Wikispaces, 2012. Help: Security. Retrieved from http://help.wikispaces.com/Security
Wikispaces, 2012. Help: Privacy and permissions. Retrieved from http://help.wikispaces.com/Privacy+and+Permissions

Re-sizing photo's

After finding the right software I was able to easily re-size these pictures of our family holiday. The pictures uploaded in seconds and it does not look like picture quality has been lost.

These are pictures of my family by which I have permission to upload.

More on Wiki

So here I am again....trying to get through the activities and wrap my head around the technology we are using.
A couple of weeks ago I placed a photo on my Wkik homepage....unfortunantly a little too fast as I had not yet learnt that I needed to re-size the picture first....Now I have an enormous picture of a horeses head (Bronco's logo) on my Wiki's front page and I can not seem to edit, delete or resize.  I went into pages and files and deleted the home page thinking that would do the trick, but alas it deleted the text and embedded you-tube but not the hideous horses head. Fortunantly, wiki has it's own recycle bin so it was very easy to restore the lost data......On reflection I should have used the preview button before saving the picture as my home page image...
Additionally, I made a movie using my webcam and movie maker and uploaded to my wiki. Although it didn't do what I thought it would. I thought it would place itself on the screen just like the embedded you tube clip, however, the movie was placed on a page and needs to be downloaded to be viewed. Not sure if this is right , although, I am happy that it worked as I ahve never done anything like that before...

Wiki Spaces

So all of the posts I have read state that the De Bono hats supported higher thinking, I too agree.
As for the wiki space itself I have been having a go looking at it's functions and features. I have  embedded a you tube link, uploaded an image made a seperate page as a template.
The image I uploaded from my computer is soooo huge, I have tried to shrink it but was unable to figure it out.
In one of the pages I fiddled around with the widgets (don't even know what that is really) I tried to put in a calander, spreadsheet and a link to my blog... all without success.... For the calander and spreadsheet it kept taking me different links within google, link after link it drives me crazy.
The blog link didn't work either not sure why!
I will continue to work with it and see if I can be successful................... will let you know how I go.....
Other things I noticed .... information from wiki's can be downloaded... seems abit of a security risk if you ask me... also wiki had linked me to other wiki's and assumed I wanted to be their friend... again security issue and a breach of privacy for not only myself but also the member of the other wiki space...
I believe wiki spaces have potential though.... they certainly can be set up so that people all over the world can contribute..
I don't like the facebook, google and so on features though......Facebook has gone viral.....it is every everywhere you look......like it on facebook.....it's taking over the world

Deviation.....I'm not sure how many people read the terms and conditions of Facebook... I wouldn't think there would be many........................Facebook has YOUR permission to follow everywhere you go on you computer....it knows all your habits on the internet................big brother is watching oh no that's facebook is watching, following, invading..........tracing .....your every move.

Connectivism

Wow, what a read that was. So, we now have machines that do all of our remembering, retrival,sorting and storing of information for us. We require the minds and thoughts of others to invent new ideas or be innovative. We rely on networks to communicate and learning is no longer an internal function.
Let me get this straight....... We no longer need our brains!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! because we have machines and the collective information of others to do our learning for us.
.............................................We no longer take responsibilty for our own individual learning, as according to the connectivism theory, learning is external (from external sources)
.............................................
Yes the world is changing, yes there are technologies that can do all of these things for us. But does that mean we have to give up our human qualities such as using our memory, experiences and voices to learn................. I think not, I am not totally convinced that all learning should be external............ How will I know who I am if I don't look inside of myself and use my cognition to sift, sort and remember information........................"Black Empty Box Theory"..... that's what will be next.

Weebly Website

http://www.weebly.com/weebly/main.php

Here is a link to my Weebly website, it was fun to create and it's functions can support all types of learning. I have included a home page and individual tabs to discuss some of the scaffolding methods we have learnt about.
I have also included some tabs which I believe would be very important when designing and facilitating learning from a website. For example the tab for support and questions allows the students to send emails to the teacher or other students.
More to come.......
After some thinking, I thought that a static website could be useful for allowing students to view (in pages/tabs) information about topics and lessons for each week/term. In addition, activities for different levels of learners could be posted for students to print off and do for homework.
This would allow students to work/learn within their level of ability, therefore, differentiating. For example some students may work a week ahead of other students or have extra challenging activities presented to them.

TPACK

The TPACK is essential a very basic graph that depicts the outcomes of blending content, pedagogy and technology in the classroom. It states that without good content, smart pedagogy and knowledgeable use of technology lessons will fail and students will not be engaged or learning effectively.
More to come.....