Wiki - Wikispaces

I have to admit I must have had my head in the sand before beginning this subject. I had heard of Wikipedia before but never really understood how it worked and never utilised it. I did not understand the theory behind it all, but now I can understand it so much better. Anyone can begin a Wiki, it is very easy to create and edit. There are many free Wiki sites available online, I am a user of Wikispaces, but I am sure they are pretty much similiar to each other.

I feel we as the 21st century teachers really need to grasp all the ICT available for us with both hands. As (Prensky, 2001) says "Today's students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach". This is so very true and I feel ICT is the key. This education system is very outdated, it has not changed for years now, it is the same since I went to school, the only real difference I see is they have Computer lessons every week. These learner's need to be challenged, they are becoming bored with the same mundane tasks offered at school. Just imagine for one second what it would have been like for us if we were taught like they were back in the 1940's for instance. It is up to us to get tech savvy, we need to be on the same page as our learner's. We want to have engaged learner's, learner's that are motivated and keen to learn, to accomplish this we need to take Marc Prensky's advice. "Engage Me or Enrage Me" (Prensky,2001) Marc Prensky also made a very valid point. "Student's certainly don't have short attention spans for their games, movies, music or Internet surfing". (Prensky, 2001)

Our learner's can create their own Wiki for a class project and they can edit, upload photos, diagrams and maps to this site. This tool is so amazing because it teachers our learner's to collaberate with each other. We not only share with our class, we can share with a friends and family and to the whole world and get constructive feedback.

I really think Wiki's are going to be such a useful and effective tool for when I begin teaching. I will be trying to get the learner's to use this tool quite abit. This idea will be such a great way to assist children witht their homework, and assist learner's who are away on a holiday or can not able to attend due to illness. This gives these learner's the opportunity to catch up on lessons lost. The teacher can leave instructions, links to websites she would like learners to focus on, attach Avatars etc. Wiki's are also a wonderful tool for learner's that live in remote areas to be able to access current lessons. For learner's that have individual needs that need to be focused on. The sky is the limit with this tool, truly amazing.

I have a sample of my Wiki, there is not alot on here as I have not had alot of time. Enjoy

http://mywikijourney.wikispaces.com/Assessment+3

When reading through our information on Moodle I came across the following clip from YouTube. The clip is about a Korean Internation School creating a Wiki for their project. I found this very interesting and I gained alot of knowledge from it, its definately worth viewing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmkqcp11pHM&feature=player_embedded

When I am beginning to feel very comforting with using Wikispaces and have much more time, my goal is to create a Wiki called The Holocaust. This is a subject that is very close to my heart. I have read many many novels and textbooks relating to this subject, watched many movies and documentaries. I would like to put all this information I have slowly gathered into one area. I can scan the books that I have read, the videos I have watched, upload the images I have and also attach the images through Google Earth to locate the camps exact position. I have also planned where I want to travel to so I can locate the Motels, Museums and so on. I can't wait.


Reference

mysterbee06. (2007, October 19). 21st century learning [Video file]. Retrieved on May 5, 2010 from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmkqcp11pHM&feature=player_embedded