This website helps immerse students into the world of Romanticism, an important style of writing roughly from 1800-1850. The wiki offers important links and photographs that help elucidate the subject. Students can also view important assignment criteria and submit their own material, offering an interactive experience for the course material. Sources are included so that students can pursue topics in more formal projects, like term papers. This to me would be considered an online lesson enhancement, which, according to Robyler & Doering (2013), “are when teachers identify an online enhancement that augments their curricular goals and use it to extend and deepen their students’ understanding” (p. 238). This particular wiki enhances material that would be covered in class, allowing students to review key historical, artistic, and economic factors that contributed to the Romantic Movement. One section includes a thread in which students respond to one another’s reflections on a movie related to Romanticism. This is important because the more collaboration that can be integrated into wikis in the classroom, the better. Students can act as mentors to one another and help augment the lessons with their own assertions. Robyler & Doering (2013) note about electronic mentoring the following: “Guidance may be one-to-one links between students and expert resources or may take the form of chats, discussion groups, collaboration zones, or learning communities” (p. 239). Collaboration in the classroom is very important, and by using wikis, instructors are able to tap into the technological craze inherent in today’s students. Students will welcome the opportunity to work with their friends and enjoy talking about important issues outside the classroom. Students will also be encouraged to achieve their best in their writing, because they have an audience of their peers, as Robyler & Doering (2013) state, “Strategies in which students write for distance audiences help motivate them to write more and to do their best writing” (p.242). Knowing that their peers will be reading and responding to their writing would help students try their best in their blog and thread posts.
Widget 1 Education Atlas Dictionary/Thesaurus
This widget would be helpful as students compose their blog posts and replies. I would want them to achieve the highest level of diction and grammar possible for their particular level, and having a dictionary and thesaurus on the blog or wiki would certainly encourage them to use this important resource in their writing. My students would ideally discover new words and increase their vocabularies as they also hone their writing skills by using this widget.
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Students, as they are traversing the wiki, may need to consult an encyclopedia to look up items that they see in my posts or from the other students in the class. Additionally, students would need to look up items that may help their own analyses and claims that they are making in their posts. The more researched the better, as far as their posts are concerned.
Web-based Lesson www.voicethread.com
Voicethread is a collaborative learning environment in which students can share their viewpoints on a variety of topics by using their own voices through microphones, images, text, and over 50 other types of media. The multimedia approach to communication will certainly appeal to students who are used to such applications. This cloud-based application allows for presentations when class time does not permit in-class presentations. Students could engage in reflections, critiques, group collaborations, or several other projects. Robyler & Doering (2013) note the following: “While it used to be uncommon for students to publish online, it is now becoming the norm” (p. 239). Students will enjoy commenting on one another’s posts and welcome feedback into their own projects. They will feel that they have something to prove because their presentation will be public. I would be excited to see how my students collaborate with one another, as Robyler & Doering (2013) write that “one of the most exciting distance learning applications calls for students to use technology as a means of collaboration …” (p. 239). Robyler & Doering call attention to the fact that students are able to engage with other students in different parts of the world for a multicultural experience. Indeed, with the internet, the possibilities for collaboration and learning are virtually endless.
M4: A comprehensive list of widgets for your blog/wikis!! #ED527UM http://t.co/kVRsMIrw45
— Jesse Cosper (@JesseCosper) October 18, 2013
Your example wiki provided me with some good ideas of things I might want to include on our upcoming wiki assignment. I am new to the world of wikis so it was nice to see some different examples. Just like you pointed out, students will try harder to achieve their best because they are writing for an audience. I agree with Robyler & Doering (2013) that students will be motivated to do their best writing if they know others will view it. I also really like both widgets that you included in your post. I think both of these would be beneficial to include on your website to help students in the research process.
ReplyDelete"Ultimately, one of the most exciting distance learning applications calls for students to use technology as a means of collaboration so they can address significant problems or issues" (Roblyer and Doering 239). Through access to wikis such as the one you posted, students can talk to each other about subjects they may have difficulty with and can do so outside of a classroom setting
ReplyDeleteYou found really good widgets to use on your wiki. Having these resources on one page, will help students work more efficiently. I think the Shelfari widget, from the list you provided, would also be a good addition to your wiki. The books you are using in class, or some of your favorites, could be put on the “shelves” for students to view.
ReplyDeleteVoicethread is something that I will have to look into further. It seems like a good example of what Roblyer & Doering (2013) are talking about when they say, “A website can serve as a virtual meeting place to support students’ communications as they work together at distant locations” (p. 246).