Mr Winton holds a place dear in my heart for sending a comment to my new infant blog – a message from someone I didn’t actually know!
Anyway, his presentation on wikis was exciting and intriguing and I must apologise for my phone going off: I thought it was on silent alert (see Panic below). Really sorry.
The wikis as used at Perth Academy show the level of involvement necessary for them to work. One particular comment from Neil was enlightening: pupils actually spent time on the computers working on the wiki itself. So that’s how it happens! I especially loved the Caves of Mull project (and have been playing on it for a while now) as a great example of lateral thinking.
After SLF07, I had tried unsuccessfully to get an Advanced Higher class networking with a Scribble site, but I was pushing something inappropriate for them. The pupils were all coming from different schools and I thought it would allow staff and pupils to share thoughts, communicate etc. In retrospect, they were communicating all the time in class, and had already shared emails. I was trying to sell them a solution for a problem that they didn’t really see.
Chastened am I, having learned that the users have got to be onboard first.
Awe Shucks!
One thing I’ve found is that, the wikis do need to have a focus for them to work, but also the felixibility to let them go off at tangents (which are not always worthwhile!). After that, it is just hard work and encouragement. Some pupils will ‘get it’ straight away while others will need more support and direction (in the sense of saying: Do this/do that/etc).
As I hope I said, what wikis are really good for is encouraging collaborative and co-operative learning: skills that we are coming to rely on more and more. There is an argument for saying that this is not the job of the English teacher, but I think that it falls under our role as teaching communication.
I’m awfully glad you enjoyed the seminar. It’s given me the confidence to put forward proposals for next year as well (though not, perhaps, as many as Ollie Bray!)
Cheers!
Shucks away!
It does seem really obvious to say “Give them directions” but to be honest, that is often missing in wiki promotions. Most wiki seminars mentions classes-full of enthusiastic kids, who jump straight into it. Naturally the positives are played up but sometimes a bit of real life would help the rest of us feel a little less useless.
That’s another reason why your seminar was so good. Simple ideas, good use of appropriate technology, real kids.
As for “not the job of the English teacher”, if I listened to “nothing to do with the librarian” then I probably wouldn’t be one anymore. Why should I let the backwards- looking traditionalists spoil my fun?