What is it?
It is a wiki tool for online collaboration. firstly, you need to create a account so as to create a wiki or be invited into others' wikis as an editor or just a reader. Then you can write your texts or insert pictures, videos or links(like a blog) in the FrontPage. Also, you can edit the page whenever you want. One of the fantastic tool is that you can upload any files in the page and visitors can download by simply clicking it in the page(different from blog). After that, to achieve the collaborative work, you can invite others to this wiki by sending them a inviting emails. you also can set permission lever:
Readers can view pages, but not edit.
Writers can view and edit pages.
Editors can view, edit, move and delete pages and folders.
Administrators always can do anything on pages and folders.
People who receive the email will be accessible to this wiki only after they have signed up a PBwiki account through the same email.
If we choose invite people as editors, then they are able to view, edit, move and delete pages and folders. See the wiki we have created in the class, everyone has create their own page :
Through Navigator, we can view others' pages. Absolutely, I can edit their pages and they can also edit mine.
If you click 'Share this page' on the right hand, you can send this page to any emails. Moreover, 'Put this page in a folder' can help you to put the related pages into the same folder.
My classmate Jean Hu and Khadiga give us a presentation on Wiki, and they have selected a article by Zorko(2009): ‘Factors affecting the way students collaborative in a wiki for English language learning’. In this article, Zorko held the view that wiki is:
If you click 'Share this page' on the right hand, you can send this page to any emails. Moreover, 'Put this page in a folder' can help you to put the related pages into the same folder.
My classmate Jean Hu and Khadiga give us a presentation on Wiki, and they have selected a article by Zorko(2009): ‘Factors affecting the way students collaborative in a wiki for English language learning’. In this article, Zorko held the view that wiki is:
- The Hawaiian "wiki wiki" ="to hurry"(Wheeler et al., 2008:989)
- A web-based publishing tool
- An easily editable virtual space
- Sharing information and knowledge
- Suitable for collaborative learning
- Collaborative interactions that facilitate effective learning (Zorko, 2009:645))
Also, wikis based on Constructivism and Collaboration. It is because while learners have great control and responsibility over the cognitive learning process whereby they construct new ideas and concepts by making use of their own knowledge and experiences, they also need to work together with two or more learners to achieve a common goal in this scaffold learning process.
Usage and Limitation
it is possibly suitable for long-term project because it underlies the process-focused learning method. Another reason is that all the editing are remembered in the 'history' and wikis are able to protect any articles that revised by any editors, while blog can only show the final draf. It is absolutely also a learner-centred tool that is very different from the Webquests, which is pre-designed by the teacher and has well-organized structure. Therefore, possibly it is hard for teachers to control in case of everything going into disorder or disorganized. Thus, whether for advanced-level learners or English beginners, the design of the TASK is quite important.
To design a task, context and purpose should be taken into the consideration firstly. Context includes lever of the student and the teaching environment. It is arguable that whether wiki is an effective tool for young learners because some maintained that the tool itself is very difficult for children and some also argued that what the teachers need to do is to teach language skills through the collaborative learning rather than teaching the collaborative learning skills. However, the problem lies in the fact is that we cannot design the task appropriately. Obviously, it is unnecessary and unrealistic to ask children write an article in the wiki when they can just recognize very basic vocabularies. However, it can be regarded as a platform for children to construct the knowledge together. For example, we can ask children to study the vocabularies in LearningChocolate and LanguageGuide respectively and create a page named ' clothes', then children can insert pictures and words they have learned by themselves in the page. Also, children study in a different website and possible they can be encouraged search for more vocabularies online can add more information in the page. Thus, the wiki can help young learners to share information together which is more focus on constructing knowledges. For advanced-learners, wikis can be used in the collaborative writing task since learners are always cautious to post and edit texts in the page with serious writing attitude.
So, teachers firstly should convince this tool and then can adopt it into the language classroom according to different learners. Moreover, it is important to motivate and encourage learners to edit others' work, telling them the the goal and purpose of the task is not assess the achievement of a single person but to work together to construct the achievement.
Something important when using wikis:
1. Disorganization of wikis : it is developed step by step
references:Usage and Limitation
it is possibly suitable for long-term project because it underlies the process-focused learning method. Another reason is that all the editing are remembered in the 'history' and wikis are able to protect any articles that revised by any editors, while blog can only show the final draf. It is absolutely also a learner-centred tool that is very different from the Webquests, which is pre-designed by the teacher and has well-organized structure. Therefore, possibly it is hard for teachers to control in case of everything going into disorder or disorganized. Thus, whether for advanced-level learners or English beginners, the design of the TASK is quite important.
To design a task, context and purpose should be taken into the consideration firstly. Context includes lever of the student and the teaching environment. It is arguable that whether wiki is an effective tool for young learners because some maintained that the tool itself is very difficult for children and some also argued that what the teachers need to do is to teach language skills through the collaborative learning rather than teaching the collaborative learning skills. However, the problem lies in the fact is that we cannot design the task appropriately. Obviously, it is unnecessary and unrealistic to ask children write an article in the wiki when they can just recognize very basic vocabularies. However, it can be regarded as a platform for children to construct the knowledge together. For example, we can ask children to study the vocabularies in LearningChocolate and LanguageGuide respectively and create a page named ' clothes', then children can insert pictures and words they have learned by themselves in the page. Also, children study in a different website and possible they can be encouraged search for more vocabularies online can add more information in the page. Thus, the wiki can help young learners to share information together which is more focus on constructing knowledges. For advanced-learners, wikis can be used in the collaborative writing task since learners are always cautious to post and edit texts in the page with serious writing attitude.
So, teachers firstly should convince this tool and then can adopt it into the language classroom according to different learners. Moreover, it is important to motivate and encourage learners to edit others' work, telling them the the goal and purpose of the task is not assess the achievement of a single person but to work together to construct the achievement.
Something important when using wikis:
1. Disorganization of wikis : it is developed step by step
teacher need to create the scaffolding (for low-level learner)
2. Create chance for communication but students try to use mother tough
3. Cautious construction of work : Not using friendly
4. compared with blod :
- blogs: personal; fixed entries; better for opinions, reviews; good for autonomy; sequential; see the fact
- wikis: communal; editable entries; better for facts,summaries; food for collaboration; not fixed sequential;see the procedure(for teacher's feedback)
Zorko, V. 2009. 'Factors affecting the way students collaborate in a wiki for English language learning'. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology. 25(5), 645-665.
Wheeler, S. Yeomans, P. and Wheeler D., 2008. 'The good, the bad and the wiki: Evaluating student-generated content for collaborative learning'. British Journal of Educational Technology. 39 (6), 987-995
No comments:
Post a Comment