Using wikis in the classroom

Since my current assignment is 7^th grade science, the use of technology to do classroom projects would be a big boost to my students’ engagement and learning. Students already show their capacity to learn new technologies when given the tools to work with. Students already use collaboration techniques whenever they are given the opportunity to do so. Therefore, using a wiki to allow students to collaborate through technology is more likely to provide positive results in their learning curve. The old saying goes, “two heads are better than one.” When students are allowed to research and discuss their ideas with one another, they can create a product that otherwise would not have been created without that collaboration. 

I have seen on a multitude of occasions that students have had their previous learning stimulated by something that was said by a classmate, and they say “I forgot about that” or “I never thought of that”. This discourse allows the students’ mind-frames to be stretched and new ideas to be formed, allowing learning to take place.  When collaboration is used, the collective learning of the group is enhanced.

In my classroom, I will use the wiki to have students complete research on various topics, such as anatomy and physiology of the human being, terrestrial biomes and organism interactions, chemical reactions in living things, and any others that I can think of that relate to biological sciences, since that is primarily what is taught at my grade level.  I will employ a grading rubric to ensure that my students fully understand the teacher expectations for the project; I will give them positive and negative examples of work so that they can provide their own comparisons; I will create teams with specific jobs for students to choose from (hopefully with them deciding to choose from their own strengths to make the collaboration effort all the better); and I will provide them with frequent feedback mechanisms so help to assuage feelings and/or prevent too many ill effects of a collaborative group effort.

What I have recently learned through creating and using a blog for my students is that they learn quickly what is expected and will comply with teacher expectations as long as they are clear. Frequent checks for understanding are important, and when students do collaborate, they frequently are able to troubleshoot their own problems, so that the teacher becomes facilitator, as it should be.