This week we learnt about wikis and personal websites. I've never used a wiki before so it was a new experience for me. I discovered that wikis are a great resource for the classroom, however they also have some disadvantages. The disadvantage of a wiki is that anyone can edit them and this could lead to some students abusing a wiki. I consider this to be a big disadvantage, and something that would cause me to be very cautious to use a wiki in the classroom. However, I do also see great advantages in the wiki, with students able to easily catch up on lessons, or review learning experiences.
It was interesting to develop a personal website using Weebly. When I was at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) I did a course called Introduction to Multimedia Technology and we designed our own websites using Microsoft Frontpage. In comparison, I find Weebly to be very simple and basic, as it does not have as many features as Frontpage does. Frontpage allows you to edit anything and everything. Being a creative student, I find Weebly to be frustrating in that I cant edit everything that I want to. I have begun to create my own website entitled Shannon's E-Learning on Weebly and I hope that I will be less frustrated the more I play with it.
In the classroom, personal websites would be an extrememly valuable tool, as it allows students to show their work without fear of anybody being able to edit it. It is also secure, as students can make it password protected. It also allows students to evaluate each others work.
This week we also talked about privacy and copyright. I was not aware that the laws were so strict on these issues! It seems that almost everything is protected by copyright, and as a teacher I must make sure I know the laws so that I can do the right thing. I believe this to be the big downfall to e-learning, as it can sometimes be difficult to navigate around what is legal and what is not. Perhaps this is one reason why some teachers avoid using ICTs in the classroom? Despite this difficulty however, I will not avoid using these great tools, as they are such valuable tools in the classroom! I will make sure I am always legal when using these tools.
Weebly is very basic and is targeted at users that want to set up a website without the use of html and little customisation. I prefer to create a website from scratch using Dreamweaver and in that way, I create the website the way I want it.
ReplyDeleteI agree strongly with what you have discussed Shannon!! I also believe that wikis are a great tool to use in the classroom however I forgot about the fact that anyone can edit them. This is a giant disadvantage. However I also believe that if the students are given guidelines and rules about how to use a wiki and told that editing other peers blogs is not appropriate I am sure they would still be affective. I believe that wikis are a great way to engage learners, as it states in the engagement theory, as long as students are engaged their behaviours are more likely to be positive meaning less behaviour management required. This also matches with behaviourism in the same aspect. Great work :)
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