Wiki's.

As I was not familiar with creating a Wiki, I decided to follow the step by step instructions on the Moodle website and create a Wiki using WetPaint. To be honest I thought that a Wiki was simply just the very detailed information which you get off of Wikipedia when wanting to find out about something. However, after engaging with the course content I now knew that a Wiki is a tool on the internet which is “produced by software on a server that can be located anywhere in the world and provide Web publishing opportunities that can be individual or collaborative” (Central Queensland University, 2009).

Therefore, I created an account with WetPaint and I decided to treat my Wiki as if it was my own individual website which I would you use to share my information with others worldwide in order to help them with their teaching and learning. Although I am treating it as my individual site, at times it will become a collaborative site as people will have the opportunity to edit the information which I have provided them with in order to suit their situation. Currently my Wiki is in the process of being completed and has part of a Technology unit on it which focuses upon Australian Animals in Captivity, a unit which I designed for a Year One class earlier on during the year. If you would like to check out my Wiki you can access it by clicking the following link, and remember feel free to use and edit the information that is on there.

My Wiki: http://ausanimalsincaptivity.wetpaint.com/

Wiki’s are definitely a learning tool which allow users to work collaboratively with many diverse people, and are similar to RSS aggregators as they can also be used to deliver learning experiences to students based upon the Learning Engagement theory (Kearsley & Shneiderman, 1999). For example, students could be focusing on a certain topic and create a Wiki where they interact with their peers from a range of schools and as a group develop a PMI or K-W-L chart so that they can reflect upon their current learning in order to enhance their future learning (Marzano & Pickering, 1997).

In my future role as a learning manager I think that using Wiki’s will be useful for not only my students by also for myself, as I am interested in engaging more with the website and checking out other people’s Wiki’s as I believe it will be an effective learning process as I already feel engaged when using the tool. I am pretty sure that I will find plenty of information on there which will be useful to use within my classroom environment, which in turn, will be beneficial in helping to create an effective learning environment for all of my students.

Reference List:

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

Kearsley, G., & Shneiderman, B. (1999). Engagement theory: a framework for technology-based teaching and learning. Retrieved July 16, 2009, from
http://home.sprynet.com/%7Egkearsley/engage.htm

Marzano, R., & Pickering, D. (1997). Dimensions of Learning. Colorado: McREL.