The Wonders of Wiki!

I must admit that I was rather overwhelmed when I first started trying to set up a wiki, due to my lack of IT experience and that my only motivation was that it was a requirement of my ICT course within my Graduate Diploma Degree. Once I wrestled with the idea and the technology for a couple of days, and finally realised that I had a very appropriate use for the technology within my own life, my enthusiasm blossomed and everything started to fall into place. Here is a link to my fabulous wiki. Hope you like it. http://gfcooking4kids.wikispaces.com/

I had realised that my attitude to the task was quite negative, and made myself go back to the Dimensions of Learning (Marzano & Pickering, 1997) text. I re-read Dimension 1, especially the section that deals with 'Helping students develop positive attitudes and perceptions about classroom tasks' (pp. 29-32). I realised that I needed to use more positive self-talk, and make myself become engaged with the task by making the task more relevant to my personal life. Once I was able to achieve that, I no longer had to force myself to sit down at the computer but found I was actually being drawn to it and put more time into developing the wiki site than I originally planned to.

The positive change in attitude and learning experience I achieved once I found a way to make it relevant to me, is exactly what Kearsley & Shneiderman (1999) proposed happens once students are given learning experiences that encompasses the three components of relate, create and donate, as this project did. My wiki was created to act as a meeting point for my sisters and I, and our friends who have children who are gluten intolerant. In the past, we have sent emails or phone calls back and forth to one another to swap recipes or to let each other know about relevant new products or websites. By setting up the wiki to act as our noticeboard, the task then became related to my life, and I was able to donate the project back to my friends and family to use and become involved in the project with me. Very exciting!

In terms of using wiki's in the classroom, I am excited by the possibilities the technology offers to allow students to create projects that they can feel are relevant to them and enable the students to work in groups that they may not have the chance to in the real world. For example, a wiki could be created for students who live on remote properties and complete their education via distance education, or perhaps just students from different schools in different towns. The wiki could be set up and require all students to record daily the weather conditions, rainfall and barometric pressure that occurs at their property/town. Using that data, they could then complete a group project about weather patterns and perhaps even forecast future weather events, depending on the age of the students. A project such as this would cover several of the KLA's such as SOSE, English, Maths and Science, as well as encourage participation of the whole family unit, and perhaps require the students to also engage with members of the Bureau of Meteorology, depending on the age of the students and the depth of the project.


References
Marzano, R.J., & Pickering, D. J., (with Arrendondo,D.E., Paynter,D. E., Blackburn, G. J., Brandt, R. S., Moffett C. A., Paynter D. E., Pollock J. E., & Whisler J. S.) (1997) Dimensions of learning teacher's manual (2nd ed.) Alexandra, VA; ASCD.

Kearsley G. & Shneiderman B. (1999) Engagement theory: a framework for technology-based teaching and learning, version 4/5/99, retrieved from http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm