I was prompted to post this blog after reading some of my colleagues posts. Many people are of the opinion that we are not ready for the integration of technology into the classroom and that the classroom prevents the use of Web. 2.0 technology. Although this might be true, there are alternatives.
Over the past year I have been able to experiment with the use of a Wiki in my standard four classroom. Despite having no access to the Internet I created a class website using a free template provided by weebly.com. The video below spoke about using it for the actual teaching of the content as they learnt about poetry within the classroom and this may be possible for some people.
However, our website was used to place extra activities and games related to the topics that I was teaching. It was also an out of school activity as the responsibility was laid on the parents and children to visit the website. This may have contributed to the fact that it took a while to get off of the ground.
It took a lot of effort as you had to constantly point out that they needed to go to the library or to an Internet cafe if they did not have access at home and repeatedly discuss safety considerations. To further motivate the children to visit the website whenever we had an event, a display, a function or a field trip pictures were taken and uploaded to the website as our photo gallery.
The website can also be beneficial to the teacher as it has provided an avenue for me to communicate with the children over this vacation period as they engage in their independent studies.
What do you think are you willing to set up a Wiki for your class?
So far I have given some insight into my experiences next time we will look at what the research has to say in terms of best practices. Keep reading!
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