Wikis and Collaborative Learning

I feel that both wiki's and collaborative learning are both incredibly beneficial to the learning experience of the modern classroom.

A good example of how beneficial they can be is found on a website talking about James Surowiecki.

• "In this book, Surowiecki tells a story about a British scientist who, after watching 800 people try to guess the weight of a fat ox, calculated the statistical mean of everyone’s guesses and discovered that the crowd thought the ox weighed 1,197 pounds. It’s actual weight? 1,198 pounds." (Ikeepsafe blog)

 This example shows us how a group of people no matter how smart have the capability to have an acquired intellect higher then anyone person in the group.

By using a wiki in your classroom you are encouraging your students to not only work together but to use each others knowledge and combine it with their own. Wikis can be used in any subject wether it be maths, science, history, english or even music.

I believe that wikis can be used in many different ways including in collaboration with either a web quest or a discovery mission. A teacher could create a wiki file and upload different information onto it about the classes topic at the time, however to add a twist the teacher would add some correct infmormation but also false information. The task would then be given to the students to research what information on the wiki is correct and what is false, and then edit the information on the wiki to create a completely accurate wiki on the classes topic. Exercises like this could benefit the students learning as they are taking part in teaching themselves the set class criteria. By taking part in their own education they may find it easier

to learn.

Other possible techniques that I believe teachers could use in their classroom to benefit their teacher student teaching experience can be found through social networking. I believe that a place for students to discuss the content of the course on a popular social networking site such at facebook, tumblr or twitter will make it easier for the student to engage with the subject matter. In a teacher guided discussion students will be able to participate in class activities while at home and partaking in their social endeavours on the internet.

Another possible way to educate students using technology can be through webquests. WebQuest direct does a fantastic job at describing what a webquest is.

• "WebQuests are activities, using Internet resources, which encourage students to use higher order thinking skills to solve a real messy problem. WebQuests are a sub-set of Problem-Based Learning."

I believe that webquests have the capability to improve the learning of all students, By collecting all of the correct information by themselves students are forced to promote their own learning.

Web quest webpages such as http://questgarden.com/search/ will help to promote webquests to teachers as the teacher need only to simply enter the type of web quest they are after and it will show them multiple possibile webquests. 

Bellow is a video created by students as to why teachers should be using webquests in the teaching.

I believe that by integrating these teaching techniques into the everyday classroom both students and teachers will be able to reap the benefits of it.

Refrences

         Graber, Diana. "Why Wikis Work." iKeepSafe Blog. (28th November 2012) Accessed 21st May 2013 http://www.ikeepsafe.org/educational-issues/why-wikis-work/

         

         Teach Thought Staff. "20 Collaborative Learning Tips and Strategies for Teachers." Teach Thought. (21st November 2012) Accessed 21st May 2013 http://www.teachthought.com/learning/20-collaborative-learning-tips-and-strategies/