Wikis are not new to me, I have used them in other courses. I like how simple they are, with what you see is what you get. They are a great for facilitating group work. I am even using it in one of my other courses this semester. My idea was inspired by this course. When I asked my teacher what he thought about my idea, He wanted me to do it for his school.
The idea: In my Learning Partnerships course, as a group, we have to develop a resource to help students with resilience. My group chose year 7 term four and our focus topic is the transition from Primary to High school. I came up with the idea to use a wiki to set up a common place students could find out information about the local high schools. This would allow students to contact mentors, find out things like subjects, and even look for a map. The website will allow students make feel a sense of belonging BEFORE they get to high school.
Students that are moving onto high school can lose their friend groups, teachers change, status changes, and etc. As such it is no wonder students can feel very scared or nervous. High school is taking students out of a world they belong and lead and putting them in a new school, with new people and at the bottom of the food chain. McInerney said that the transition into high school can disrupt students’ social networks and “New social networks take time to establish, and this can take precedence over learning...” (McInerney & McInerney, 2006, p.239)
You can see why I declined setting it up, good idea, but lots of work. We have not developed it yet, but I look forward to it.
An online text book that the students create using WIKIPedia would be a brilliant way to get students engaged in the topic. It would be really interesting to have my students create a online textbook around some Japanese subject whether it be a place, a festival or even a page about customs. Students would be searching for the facts, rather then the teacher trying in vain to get students to learn something they don't care about. This is defiantly a good example of the learning engagement theory.
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Wow! that does sound like a lot of work! It seems to be a very well thought out idea.... I'd love to see it once you have got it up and running!
ReplyDeleteI like your idea! I was thinking that students could use their blogs as well and have RSS feeds to local schools' websites as well. That way the students would be able to access any new information about the different schools eg latest newsletters, sport achievements etc.
ReplyDeleteRegards
Meryl
Zelina- No problem, I can show you when we are done if you are interested. It will only be a mock though.
ReplyDeleteMeryl- I hadn't yet got around to thinking of other things to be included with the Wiki. Your ideas are great and i'll talk to my group to see what they think!