Websites and Wikis

I have always thought that the idea of incorporating a class website with links to class notes, activities, discussion boards, etc would be a fantastic tool for learning; however, I also always thought that it would require a specialised IT expert who knew coding not only to set it up but to maintain it. These skills I have never possessed and therefore my idea was hidden in the back of my brain and never executed.

When I read that we would be setting up a webpage this week, I was very apprehensive. I really did not feel that I had the skills needed to create one, but I was pleasantly surprised by how simple it was. Basically all you did was type in your details, decide on a name, and then drag and drop formatting options according to how you want your webpage to look and then you start adding your personal touches like text and photos, etc.

A classroom website would be such as effective tool for any subject. Teachers would be able to keep absent students up to date with class information, parents and support staff could be kept informed on class and student progress, and students could have access to assignment task sheets and class activity sheets, eliminating the excuse of students losing important information and not knowing what to do.

The wiki was even simpler to create, and would be extremely useful in any context involving the need for students to liaise with one another, across all subjects. Students could contribute their own part of the activity on the wiki whenever was convenient for them, and then remainder of the group could do the same. Wikis would also be beneficial used for rough draft work and peer reviews. The student could upload their assessment rough draft on the wiki, and the teacher, or peers could comment or make changes where needed. This process could continue until the assessment was completed.

Within my teaching context, I would use the website and wiki as an assessment piece for a novel. In groups, Students would need to create an overview of the novel for the homepage then link it to pages containing character profiles, a plot synopsis, word definitions, and a summary of themes and historical context of the novel. These pages would be incorporated as exercises throughout the unit of work so that the workload was distributed throughout rather than the task being too overwhelming to be completed at the end of the unit. The wiki would serve as a means of communication between groups in relation to both the planning and completion phases of the assessment.