The educational need I have chosen to address is group projects. A lot of times when students are given a group project to work on, most of the work falls on one person or a few. This has happened to me in the past and it is not fair! By using Wikispaces, I will be able to see which students are contributing to the project and what they have contributed. Also, by using Wikispaces it will be easy for students and myself to make comments to help improve the project.
Another benefit of using Wikispaces is that it is on the Internet. This gives me the option of allowing students to work on it at school as well as at home. At the school I am currently working at, we have both a computer lab and laptop carts that I would be able to check out for my class to use.
The objective of this project will be to design a board game based on the history of Michigan. I am planning this project for a fourth grade class because that is when they study the history of Michigan, although it can be adapted to another grade level with a different topic. I want my students to use the wiki page to design the parts of the game. I will have assignments throughout the project that are due at designated times. These assignments will be the different parts of the project like the questions, rules, and materials. They will get feedback from me and their peers and will be able to improve the parts for the final product. I will be assessing the students based on what they contribute to the wiki page and then the final product, which is the actual board game.
Since I am not currently teaching my own class, I am putting together my plan to use in my future classroom. I may need to make changes to my plan based on the technologies I have available, when I have my own classroom.
Here are some sites I found useful information on wikispaces:
http://www.slideshare.net/kihitara/wikispaces-in-the-classroom-presentation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjHJXAODbH4
http://mrsroncone.wikispaces.com/Ways+to+use+a+wiki+in+your+classroom
Excellent idea. Do you have any thoughts on what project would lend itself nicely to your idea of wiki implementation? When would wikis work well? When would they be a hinderance more than a help? Would the wiki work as a repository for student work (a work space) or would it be the project itself? How would you get parental buy-in?
ReplyDeleteSorry for all the questions...but things to consider as you think about implementation in the future...
Amanda,
ReplyDeleteI love this idea! I think it can be a very functional way to keep students responsible and accountable for their participation, as well as their input to the group. I think having the group project online also enables them to use a larger variety of resources that might otherwise not be included in a hands on project. What grade are you thinking about implementing this with? I think it can work well, but might need a lot of front loading to make sure that they understand what is expected and how to communicate kindly and effectively online. Google docs can also be a very user friendly way to communicate and show their efforts and contributions to a working document. What project did you have in mind? I'd love to talk more with you about this because I could see applying this to my classroom with my higher level students. This is a serious problem that I also share in my groups, where my AIG students are stuck with the majority of the work, but also naturally take on the leadership role. Would you assign roles to the students to use on the wiki? Great start! I'm excited to talk more with you about this project!
This is a great idea Amanda! After reading all these blog posts, we unfortunately all have the same issues in the classroom. Getting all students to participate equally is what all teachers yearn to do on a daily basis. This is one reason why I love using Google docs and Google presentation. I am interested how you will use Wiki because I am not as confident in this online program. I hope that you will help me learn how to effectively use Wiki spaces to help build active participation by all students.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting idea. I have not really used Wikis within my classroom before, and so am intrigued to see what you design. I agree that groupwork can be very tricky, as you said usually the student who is most concerned about the grade does all the work. Have you used Wikis before? If so, what features do they have that you think will help in a classroom setting? I don't know much about them, so I am excited to see what you do.
ReplyDelete