Profile Wiki BLOG
Developing my Wiki profile raised some serious privacy and ethical concerns for me. As a ‘real life’ socially skilled being, I hesitated to enter the virtual world whereby my audience was ‘unknown’. The course Wiki seemed safe enough, a definite connection and community of peers that are travelling the same road; however blogging to an unknown virtual world wide audience did not feel so right and it raised questions of choice, privacy and plagiarism. I had an adverse reaction to the activity and immediately began to complain to my partner about having to share myself in an online space with a bunch of people I did not know. My initial reaction is that those that feel more comfortable, open ( the extravert's) may be significantly advantaged in this course and may do better "on paper", however may not be any further 'educated' than those who are deeply private people who struggle to share their personal learning with the digital unknown world. This is an issue I will need to work through as I move through this course. In the teaching world this is a particularly essential issue when asking any future students to participate in the online realm - perhaps some prior discussion and explanation of expectations, including who has access to your information and online safety issues would be helpful, and essential.
As the concept of a wiki was foreign to me, as was its application to the teaching environment, I immediately appreciated the scaffolding provided, a cognitivist technique. While looking at Wiki uses in the class room setting I came across the story of Terry the tennis ball about a grade 3/4 class who elected to add to the story. It prompted me to think about my own learning. Terry the tennis ball experiences at school whereby group story telling was a technique that my teacher used to elicit a social connection and shared journey, however the Wiki version of this not only meets a shared connection between the students, but also enhances literacy skills while ensuring engagement of the ‘digital narratives’. Prensky (2001,p2) suggests that the digital narrative “functions best when networked”, and as such the use of Wikis and blogs within the teaching realm is supported.
“Educators and students, as well as amateurs and professionals (artists, writers, collectors), have found wikis useful in expanding community involvement and interest in their subjects and activities.” (Educause,2005,p2). I immediately considered the social connection benefits for ASD children who often have very specific and obsessive interests, as Atwood (n.d) states “The intensity and focus of this interest usually distinguishes children with Asperger's Syndrome from their peers. The nature and number of interests change over time and specific triggers may precipitate a new interest.” Wikis and blogs are a constructionist method to provide easy and inexpensive options for teachers to allow students with specialised or specific interests to share,refine and expand knowledge on these topics while also providing a community networking experience.
In thinking about how Wikis and Blogs fit within the principles of e-learning pedagogy it immediately became apparent that my engagement in such an activity relied on not only declarative knowledge but the procedural knowledge. Furthermore it catered for multiple intelligences and a variety of learning styles. Bruns and Humphryes, 2005 state “Wikis, MOOs, Web-fora and blogs are all applications that can facilitate more interactive and creative learning environments in which students are obliged to ‘enact’ their understandings, to create and communicate their knowledge. Furthermore, I realised in doing this exercise, having limited experience with Blogs and Wikis, I was immediately engaged in connectivist learning, moving from one website to the another and refining my skill and knowledge, and chatting with my online peers about the task.
The Wiki learning outcome was also assisted by the scaffolding provided, which aided in making the task feel achievable. In addition I found elements of behavioral learning theory, in that the activity was prescribed and prescriptive in its initial set up. Furthermore, the rewards of watching the blog grow, and having peers comment on your work provided positive re-enforcement. This activity also demonstrated use of personal choice, and was rather open to my own interpretation and control and relation to how much information I chose to provide in my wiki and blog once they were constructed. Allowing students to have control and creativity over their learning outcomes no doubt results in more engaged learners and draws from constructionist theory whereby the learner is able to impersonality their learning. I can imagine a class wiki maybe a way for the teacher to begin to understand the students and the students to share information about themselves.
REFERRENCE LIST
Atwood, T. (n.d), Learning and Behaviour Problems in Asperger Syndrome. Retrieved February 21, 2011 from http://www.tonyattwood.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=68:chapter-on-understanding-and-managing-circumscribed-interests&catid=44:resource-papers&Itemid=180I
Bruns, A. ,Humphryes, S. (2005). Wikis in teaching and assessment: the M/Cyclopedia project. Proceedings of the 2005 international symposium on Wikis. Retrieved 21 February 2011 from http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=1104973.1104976 |
Educause Learning. (2005). 7 Things you should know about Wikis. Retrieved 20 Feburary 2011 from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7004.pdf |
Prensky, M. (2001) Digital Natives Digital Immigrants. On the Horizon MCB University Press, 9( 5), 1-6. Retrieved February 20, 2011 from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20- 20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf
Oh dear… I have a definite preference for active learning. “If you always act before reflecting you can jump into things prematurely and get into trouble”(Felder & Solomon; http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/ILSdir/styles.htm ) These sound like words of warning. Reflecting my previous learning experiences, I have to say this would not be an inaccurate description of me at times. I can get so excited and wrapped up in the learning process that I tend to jump in head on, and have often found myself backtracking and heading to the warnings coming from around me such as "slow down, lets just look at this first".
My results suggest I’m well balanced on the sensory and intuitive scales, and sequential & global learning scales. It reassuring that given my strong preference fro action, that utilise the other learning styles with some balance. I have a moderate preference for visual over verbal, which on reflection I immediately picture charts, faces or body movements of those talking to me, however I do recall specific words I hear, so I know I also rely on the verbal nature of information over reading it. This was evidenced in my Internet search for videos on ICT in the classroom, and my need to hear and see others talking about this topic despite having completed all the readings.
What sorts of learning experiences would suit you best with your learning style?
I’m thinking that the EPL is going to suit my learning style given my preference for active learning. I also suspect group work and discussions will also suit my learning style. I know in terms of this course, I'm desperately hoping that the lectures are uploaded, as I need to hear and see someone present the information and discuss the topic to feel complete comfortable in my learning.
In a traditional classroom of 25 students, how would you support the range of learning styles each lesson?
I would aim to incorporate a variety of ways of presenting and exploring the information/topic. This would include visual presentations such multi-media, discussion time, and experiential activities. Presenting the topic with both general and specific details. I would also hope to provide opportunity for students to work individually or in groups. In addition provision of written handout/summaries would be provided.
Understanding children's learning styles is essential to be able to deliver lessons to meet the students needs. The use of group work to specifically match students with others who share similar profiles when possible would enable maximum retention of information - eg for the kinesthetic learners ensure they had a place to discuss and experiment with the topic way from the reflective learning's.
3. With your current knowledge of ICT, how could your design and digital pedagogy support your learners better?
- Increase engagement Interactive
- Facilitates independent research skills
- Enables ability to monitor and target students progress
- Allows for more focuses individuals learning outcomes (flexible)
- Can save time in classroom e.g. interactive white boards
- Assist in incorporating a variety of learning styles
- I would ask Questions about how that student retains information best in the classroom and home context; e.g
- What learning experiences / lessons do you enjoy the most and why?
- What lessons/learning task to you most dislike and why?
- Do you learn to spell words by writing them down, saying them allowed, reading/looking at them ?
- Do you fidget with your hands/pencils while you are in class?
- Do you remember the answers to things by hearing them in your head or seeing a picture? Do you prefer to hear the instructions or have them written down?
- When you do a maths problem do you go slowly from the start to finish ,or do you know the answer and the work out how you got the answer?
- When you get a new toy like Lego, or computer game, do you read all the instructions first and follow the steps, or do you work it our yourself by experimenting?
In addition to this I would make observations of the students preference and behavior during class and welcome parental feedback about the students learning styles.
How does ICT support differences in learning styles?
The use of technology allows for the information to be presented an a variety of styles, such as a power point presentations that may contain video clips, music, pictures/graphs, activities and quizzes that may be printed our or completed online. These techniques cater for the varying needs of the learning, such as visual input, auditory input, interactive sessions for kinesthetic and action learners and summaries and print outs for the reflective learning.
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