This week we learned about the uses of Wiki and began our Wiki group project. Never hearing abot Wiki until this class, I have again discovered a tool that will one day be very useful in my classroom. As we have learned, Wiki allows its users to alter the pages that we have created. I thought that this would be useful in the classroom in the sense that it will motivate for greater teamwork in the classroom. For an example, the students have an essay due and instead of wasting all the paper of printing dozens of rough copies in order to participate in peer reviews, this can be done online. Each student posts thier essay on the assigned day. Then the teacher assigns each student to another student's essay in order to read and complete a peer review. This can be a week's process where multiple student reviews can be completed before the final copy is handed in. The best part is that the students and the teacher can visually see what has been changed and determine if the change was appropriate or not.
The article that we read this week was very interesting in its discussion regarding the Digital Divide. I enjoyed this article, especially growing up in a community where I had never considered the economic issues accompanying the access of technology. I have grown up in a house where I was lucky to have my own computer therefore I had constant access to the Internet as well as additional activities to assist with my learning. Through "playing around" on the computer I was able to develop computer skills that many other children were unable to develop due to their lack of access to a computer. Though we are in the midst of a technology age, teachers must realize that there is a digital divide. In order to make changes teachers must give his or her students the access to computer use. What I had not realized until reading this article is the use of computer labs as more of an obstacle as compared to an advantage. In a 5th grade classroom that I had visited last week I overheard the teacher explaining to the students that they had to put off certain assignments because the computer lab is booked for the next week. The limited use of these labs do not assist in making technology a part of the learning as teachers we should be doing. This is because it is only the students that are not familiar with computer use that fall behind. The main point of the article is making sure that all students are benefiting from the technology use within the classroom, not just a select few.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Hi Bethany,
I really liked your idea for using the wiki as a site for student editing. That was innovative and ecologically responsible. To add to that, what if classes teamed with like classes from other schools and got feedback that way?
I also appreciated your statement that we need computer technology for our global world. What if students from different countries started communicating with each other and developed relationships, so they were friends. I wonder if it would be harder to go to war if that were the case?
Post a Comment