WIKIPedia.

Well I must say that I use Wikipedia on a weekly basis as it is a resource which is efficient to use and contains a high level of educational content, and I absolutely love the site and would be lost without it. Not only do I use Wikipedia as a resource for finding out information to use within my learning experiences on my prac, I also use it for looking up information about my interests, such as, TV shows and music artists. Prior to engaging in the courseware of this course, I never really thought about what Wikipedia was, other than it being a website which contains large amounts of information about any topic you want to know about. However, I now know that Wikipedia is a form of a Wiki which is also an encyclopedia, hence the name Wikipedia (Central Queensland University, 2009).

As I am required to develop a Brain Gym activity for my year one students to complete during my prac visit next week, I decided to search Wikipedia and enhance my current knowledge about what Brain Gym actually is, in order to hopefully find resources to support my teaching. I found a number of useful resources by searching the term Brain Gym on Wikipedia, such as, a clear definition of what it is, how it is implemented within classrooms, why it is implemented within classrooms, exercises, and the advantages and disadvantages associated with the program (Wikipedia, 2009).

In order to take advantage of using Wikipedia, I would design learning experiences for my students which required them to search Wikipedia about a certain topic inside the classroom environment. Students could then extend their knowledge learnt in class by continuing to research their topic outside of the classroom environment if they have the facilities in their home environment. As my current prac class is year one, I wouldn’t get the students to directly use Wikipedia as the language used on the site would be too hard for them to understand, therefore, I would search Wikipedia myself and rephrase the language used in order to suit the students’ learning levels. However, I would definitely encourage the direct use of Wikipedia as a student resource in the upper primary area for gaining information, as the majority of students’ learning would be enhanced, as they would be able to comprehend the information displayed which would then lead to effective learning occurring (Central Queensland University, 2009).

It is to be noted that at times some of the information on Wikipedia is unreliable and incorrect, however, the majority of the time the information is correct and students should be required to combine numerous resources when researching information in order to determine whether or not the information displayed is reliable and correct.

I look forward to discussing with my peers their thoughts on Wikipedia, as I am curious to know if they find the online encyclopedia as useful as what I do.

Reference List:
Central Queensland University (CQU). (2009). FAHE11001- Managing E-Learning: Moodle site. Rockhampton, QLD, Australia: Scot Aldred.

Wikipedia. (2009). Brain gym. Retrieved August 16, 2009, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_Gym