Saturday, February 19, 2011

Wikis as Portfolios


I have just started using a wiki with my Teens 1 course. Students are between 10 to 12 years old. I have used wikis with young learners before and everytime I do it, I am always surprised at their creativity and their enthusiasm in owing a virtual space. I generally create accounts for them in Pbworks. I enter their names and the site generates usernames and passwords. They really have fun with the passwords assigned to them (always a combination of the name of an animal and a number followed by a fruit,for example, snake4mango. Everytime I do this, I get the chance to teach them English and some basic digital skills. I also try to teach them something about design. Sometimes they use pictures that are too large and I give feedback saying that smaller pictures make scrolling a bit easier and content more visible. They are just beginning and they loved when I browse their recently created pages in the data show in our class. I am realy looking forward to what will come out of this round of digital experience.

3 comments:

joe said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Darlene said...

Hello Jose. I remember you from the 2011 EVO session. Those sessions gave me the tools and courage to start blogging. Thanks to all the volunteers who put together EVO each year. Great stuff. Just wanted to comment on your use of wikis in lower elementary school. I think it's a great idea and helps students to be more creative. I am currently doing a pilot workshop on using blogs in the ESL classroom to encourage better writing skills. I also would like to do a case study on children in lower grades using blogs to help them learn the basics of English. If you would be interested in letting me know how wikis are working in your class and the pros and cons of integrating them into your curriculum, I would be interested to document this in my case study for my Curriculum Design Course. Also, here are some links that maybe helpful for your students to encourage writing. These are links to a story writing web site you may find useful for your students: http://www.storyjumper.com/; http://storybird.com/ and also a good and safe blog site for teachers to use with their students: http://kidblog.org/home.php

Please feel free to check out my blog and leave a comment at: http://darlene-lifelonglearner.blogspot.ca/
I love the Edtech paper you created. I will read it and if I can post a widget on my blog i will do that soon. Hope to hear back from you.

joseantonio said...

Hi Darlene,
I remember you as a participant. I am so happy to know BaW has inspired you. We are always glad when we manage to increase the number of enthusiasts to use technology in class.
Yes, wikis are a great tool for elementary and intermediate levels. Little by little other teachers in the institution I work are joining us in the wiki drive.
It would be a pleasure to help you out, because I am a big fan of wikis and I will be doing a presentation on the subject in our next regional Braz-Tesol conference. If you wish to send a form with the points you want to highlight, it will be a pleasure to contribute.
Thanks a lot for the suggestions of websites. I have already browsed kidblog and I just loved it. I will sure visit your blog and leave a comment.
Again, it is great to hear from you.
All the best
JA