Preparation for face-to-face session
This preparation will take around 1 hour. These activities are intended to give you an overview into the use of wikis, including their advantages and disadvantages. The activities will be addressed by the course facilitator at the beginning of the face-to-face session.
Activity 1 What are wikis?
The objectives of this course activity are to:
- become more familiar with wikis
- understand the role of wikis in supporting collaboration in learning.
Before the facilitated session, read the Educause document ‘7 things you should know about wikis’ [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)]
Reflect on the sections ‘Why is it significant?’ and ‘What are the downsides?’ Think about the points raised in these sections and how you might address them. For example what safeguards you may have to think about to ensure any wiki space works effectively and safely. Make some notes that include opportunities or concerns you have identified around the use of wikis with your learners from your reading so far.
Activity 2 An example of a Primary school wiki.
The objective of this course activity is to browse an example of a Primary school wiki to see the range of content included and individual pages created and edited by individual learners.
Go to http://www.sandaigprimary.co.uk/ wiki which is a wiki created by a Primary school in Glasgow, Scotland. Browse this wiki, scrolling down to look at the Year 6 projects featured. Individual learners have their own pages, which you can find by clicking on a project link and then on individual learners’ names. Are you surprised to see this amount of content in a primary wiki? Reflect on whether your primary learners could contribute to a similar resource and whether any projects planned for the coming school year could be displayed in a similar way to the work produced by Sandaig Primary School. Add to your notes any thoughts you have about creating a similar wiki site with your learners.
Introduction