Learning Communities, Constructing Knowledge Together in Wikis - Module 10

These very simple vanilla butterfly cakes are one of my favourite basic recipes. I use a raspberry Chantilly cream with fresh vanilla bean to top them off, so yummy!

My last module reflection is similar to these basic cupcakes, in that they remind me that I have so many skills in the kitchen but sometimes, traditional methods are best. I recognise that I must embrace the technology that Web 2.0 has guided me through (in fact I have loved the challenge of thinking of ways to implement them in the classroom), and I genuinely enjoy getting students to interact with content in a way that they are familiar with. However, I think students need to develop a level of independence and take responsibility for their learning. It is not a good situation to see that only a  few students contribute to collaborative learning sites, while all students benefit. This means those that do not contribute are not actively engaging with content. Additionally, our formal external exams are all still written, and with the implementation of so much technology students are losing the ability to write quickly and legibly, so I think our system has to catch up to the technology we are frequently using in the classroom.

As for the advantages I think these online learning communities, such as Wikis, give students who would not ordinarily contribute to class discussions a chance to be heard. Those students that are shy, quiet or not confident in their abilities will get a chance to feel heard and benefit from the stronger students. The sites also enable students to hear the different perspectives of the people in the group. The sites are a way to reinforce the content taught in class and with students explaining it in their own words, a teacher can be confident that students are becoming fluent in a particular area of study. The online communities  also deliver a sense of equity amongst classes. In my experience, the biology Wiki enables me to make available all the resources I have used in the classroom so that the other class has access, this is  also reciprocated by the other teacher. This reinforces the idea that we are one cohort and not separate classes competing against each other. Furthermore, online communities could could be established across multiple schools. This would be a great benefit to science as there are many teachers who have come to be teachers after a substantial career in science, particularly research, and thus we could draw on the most experienced teachers to enhance our knowledge of syllabus material.

I think our role as teachers is changing, we have to embrace technology in order to engage students, but I don't want to forget traditional methods such as drawing basic diagrams, this is especially important in science as a diagram can often better explain what a student is trying to say than simply writing a response.