Chosen technologies to support learning in a classroom:Wikis and WebQuests
1. How might a Wiki and a WebQuest be used in a teaching program and how might its use support teaching?
WebQuests and the framework that they utilise have many advantages to offer a teaching program. The framework is one that supports the constructivist teaching platform. Both WebQuests and Wikis have three constructs perceived by teachers as critical to WebQuests: constructivist problem solving, social interaction, and scaffolded learning. WebQuests are mainly used for inquiry oriented learning in which learners interact with resources on the internet, develop interpersonal and collaborative skills and engage in higher order thinking. (Zheng 2008, p.1)
WebQuests can support teaching as it offers the opportunities for open ended activities; allows children to build on their existing knowledge to effect conceptual change and provides additional protection for them as they are not randomly surfing the internet in their hunt for relevant information.
Wikis allow for collaborative learning which is an integral platform of the constructivist learning model as well the development of many ICT skills.
Both Wikis and WebQuests can be used as part of either a unit or a smaller sequence of lessons. In addition to this they can provide both formative and summative assessment opportunities for the teacher as they progress through the WebQuest, and collate their information onto their Wiki for publication.
Advantages of WebQuests according to Burleson are:
Most schools cannot afford the time or resources required to allow students to search the Internet without a clear purpose in mind, and there is doubtful educational benefit in doing so. WebQuests allow students to use the Internet without the arduous task of filtering through the mountains of information contained within it. Teachers have done this work already!
Great WebQuests direct students to not only search for information but to debate, discuss or defend a particular stance with classmates. Students of all ages and grades can use WebQuests.
Most, if not all, of the information used in WebQuests is drawn from the Internet.
Students are provided with online resources and are asked to use this information constructively to solve the presented problem rather than just cutting and pasting material into an assignment or project.
By eliminating the need to search or hunt for information the student is given more time to analyse, criticise and assess the information they find.
WebQuests are inquiry-oriented activities designed to make the most of the student's time.
2. What learning do you anticipate will occur through the use of the Wiki and a WebQuests and how might it differ from what would be learned in a more traditional classroom without the technology?
There are many varieties of learning that would occur through the use of these technologies.
They are as follows: Wikis
ICT usage and familiarity with different programs
Researching skills
Observation skills
Patience and perseverance when dealing with varying difficulties of technology as things don’t always go right and you need to be innovative
Group work skills- collaboration, communication, cooperation.
WebQuests
In this particular unit it is anticipated that the students will learn the following through participation in this WebQuest:
Growth cycle of a seed
Investigation skills
Research skills
Observation skills
Data analysis skills
In a more traditional setting the children would be seeking their information in the transmissive vehicle of text books, encyclopedias and worksheets. Whilst they would learn sounds researching skills in using written text, this knowledge would be limited to just that.
3. What problems might teachers encounter in using the technology?
Wikis. Using a wiki in a classroom to support student learning poses a number of problems. These include: · Access to computers and the internet The most obvious problem in using wikis is whether computers and internet access are available to students in the classroom environment. If the students have no access to computers then using a wiki in class is obviously not going to work out, for they depend on internet access.
Wikis are also a fantastic way of enabling students to contribute to the learning from the comforts of their own home. However teachers cannot expect students to work on a wiki project from home, because perhaps not every student has access to the internet out of school. · The teacher’s ability to use the software To fully understand wiki technology and be able to successfully use it to create a collaborative, online publishing and discussion medium teachers themselves need to be able to use the software. Before asking students to use a wiki, teachers need to explore how to use it for themselves, particularly those teachers who are not technologically inclined. If teachers plan on using a wiki in the classroom, it is imperative that they know how to use the software, not only so they better understand the reasons why a wiki can aid learning, but also because they need to be able to provide answers to those students who have questions about how something is done on a wiki. · The students’ ability to use the software Despite the abundance of technology in our lives, not all students are competent in using technology and there may be some students in the class who will find using a wiki challenging. To help students get the best out of using a wiki, the teacher should spend at least one lesson teaching the students how to use the software. This could be done through a step-by-step demonstration of the basics, followed by giving the students free time to explore its use. · Internet privacy Like any other internet application, personal privacy on the web is always an issue. People of all types can access any of the content on the web, and sadly there are a number of people out there who use the internet for evil intents. Teaching students about internet safety is a must for any teacher intending to use a wiki or any other web technology. In an online environment students should “never reveal information about where they live, where they work, and anything else that might identify them to potential predators” (Richardson, 2009, p. 12). Usually it is quite okay for people to use their first name when publishing online content, however “complete anonymity is the safest route when publishing” (Richardson, 2009, p. 13), especially for students. For our wiki we have decided to give students pseudonyms to keep their identity safe. In keeping with our wiki’s topic, plants, students will each go by the name of a flowering plant.
One of the reasons why wikis are so popular is due to their capacity to allow anyone to edit their content. In an educational setting this makes for a fantastic collaborative tool, however it also creates a problem – do we want anyone from anywhere in the world to edit our wiki? And what if someone goes into our class wiki and vandalises it by erasing content or adding vulgar content?
To prevent such problems teachers need to set up the wiki to be private. This will then allow the teacher to have full control over who is allowed to join and edit the wiki. Not all wiki applications allow such control, so teachers need to make an educated choice about which wiki application they choose to use in the classroom. Educational wikis on ‘wikispaces’ and ‘wetpaint’ will allow teachers to restrict the access to the wikis, so that only those you invite can edit it. · Sabotage of work and reluctance in publishing for fear of disrespect Because wikis allow members to edit its content at anytime, students essentially have free rein to alter content. This could pose problems to the integrity of the work, whereby students might be vengeful and deliberately sabotage the work of others. In a collaborative environment such as a wiki, teachers need to highlight the importance of respecting the contributions of others, by ensuring students are aware that deliberate sabotage of work is not accepted behaviour. Also teachers need to ensure students edit the work of others in a way that is constructive. Comments about others’ work should also be constructive rather than critical.
When content is added to a wiki all students in the class can see it. This may cause a problem to those students who are shy about displaying their work, especially if they fear that their work isn’t good enough and might be disrespected by others. In using a wiki “students must be able to overcome their reluctance to allow others to see their unfinished working documents, and must be willing to let others contribute changes” (Parker & Chao, 2007, p. 62). The teacher needs to ensure everyone is aware that work on the wiki is a collaborative effort and by working together, not individually, students are producing a better, richer result.
WebQuests In using a WebQuest teachers may encounter various problems including: · Access to computers and the internet A WebQuest relies heavily on students being able to access the internet. In using a WebQuest, teachers need to ensure that students will have access to all sites required by the WebQuest. Also, content on the internet changes all the time, and often links to web pages that may have worked the previous year, no longer function. Prior to setting the WebQuest, teachers need to check all web links work correctly, by clicking on each one and ensuring it takes the students to the site intended. · It takes time for teachers to develop effective WebQuests One of the major problems in using a WebQuest in a classroom is the time it takes for a teacher to develop the WebQuest. Although the internet offers a variety of sites that make publishing the WebQuest simple, the actual design of the WebQuest is far from simple. Zheng et al (2008, p. 302) describes the designing and developing of a WebQuest as a “complex process that involves careful planning by putting in perspective all variables that may influence the learner’s learning, including social, psychological, cognitive, developmental, and so on.” In designing a WebQuest teachers need to be clear about what they want students to get out of their learning so they can create a WebQuest task that meets those learning goals and encourages higher-level thinking.
Also, another problem in designing a WebQuest is the selection of appropriate websites to be used. Because anyone can create content on the internet, not everything that appears on the internet is correct. Teachers need to be careful in selecting websites for their WebQuests, and ensure the reliability and accuracy of their chosen web pages. Questions to ask include – who has created this website?, are the publishers from a reliable company?, and, does the author give references for source of the information?
As well as ensuring the information on the website is reliable and accurate, teachers also need to make assessments about the site’s appropriateness for their students. Is the site accessible to the students in the class in terms of whether they can understand the information, navigate through it, and most importantly is the content free from profanities and inappropriate content? · The appeal of the WebQuest “Schweizer and Kossow (2007) observe that with WebQuests, students are motivated to learn
content information and engaged in ‘higher level thinking skills required to complete the task’ (cited in Zheng et al, 2008, p. 296), however this is not the case if students are not interested in the topic the WebQuest asks them to explore. Teachers need to be aware of the individual interests of the students and tailor the WebQuests to meet those interests. Ensuring WebQuests appeal to students’ interests will help motivate the students in learning, and ultimately encourage the students to stick to the task, work well, and engage in the higher-level of critical thinking that the WebQuest aims to draw out of students. · Group Work WebQuests ask students to work together to research and solve the problems. Group work can be quite challenging for students and lead to many problems, including disagreements, unequal shares of work, and different view points on how something should be done. To help alleviate problems when working in groups, teachers should assign specific roles to each student and ensure that students designate the work load evenly. Teachers should also help students to come up with compromises and provide support to those groups who struggle in working together. · Distractions on the Internet Another problem in using WebQuests is that students may become distracted when using the internet. Even though the WebQuest directs students to specific web pages and sites, it is easy for students to move onto other websites that are not related to the task. If the students are left unsupervised when completing the WebQuest, or they find it uninteresting, then they are more likely to get distracted from the task by venturing out of the designated web links to sites that are of greater interest to them.
4. How will student learning be evaluated?
Assessing a Wiki. The students’ learning will be observed and evaluated through the utilisation of an assessment rubric. ‘A rubric is a printed set of criteria for assessing knowledge, performance or product and for giving feedback’ (Department Of Education And Early Childhood Development, 2009). The rubric will assess students’ on their contribution towards the Wiki through the addition of predictions and observations, to their ability to upload images and drawings. The students will also be assessed on an individuals’ understanding of the germination process, respect towards other students produced work, as well as their capability to produce a poster on Glogster. Implementing an assessment rubric provides both the students and the teacher with explicit marking criteria which allows a fair and standardised result. This rubric however differs from the rubric created for the WebQuest, in that it covers all areas of assessment including diagnostic, formative and summative. Diagnostic as the students’ are encouraged to make a prediction of what will happen to their seed before the observations begin, allowing previous conceptions to arise. The formative assessment is viewed as the students’ continue to add to their observations, ideas and pictures on the Wiki page over a period of time. Summative evaluation occurs at the end with the child’s designed poster being the final task to illustrate to the teacher their built understanding of the germination process. The inclusion of an assessment rubric allows teachers to effectively evaluate students’ learning and development and permits students to recognise what amount of effort will need to be placed on a task to achieve a result that they are happy with. Assessment rubrics are being implemented as a main style of assessment across a variety of grades and curriculum subjects.
Assessing a WebQuest. Within the WebQuest the students’ learning will be viewed and evaluated by the answers to the quiz and through the completion of the task based on an assessment rubric. The rubric is created by the teacher ‘based on his or hers expectation of the learners’ (Halat, E 2008). This rubric outline could be utilised by both the students and teachers. As the teachers can discover students who are having difficulties completing the task and where more support is needed within the topic. As for the learners themselves they could ‘compare and contrast what they have learnt and accomplished’ (Halat, E 2008). Allowing the child to produce work and complete the task with the amount of effort required to achieve their desired mark. The rubric can be categorised as a formative and summative assessment as both the students and teachers are able to view the marking criteria as desired and the criteria is relevant to the stages of the task and the finished product. The quiz however is a part of summative assessment which will occur once the children have completed their task, to demonstrate to the teacher their newly found understandings of the task. The only type of assessment which is not included in the WebQuest is diagnostic assessment, as once the students’ have completed all tasks on the Wiki they can begin the WebQuest. This means that the students will enter the WebQuest task with some background comprehension on the germination process, which will then be further extend upon. This method of evaluation is encouraged through the labelled tabs placed onto the WebQuest and the use of assessment rubrics is how most teachers are now effectively evaluating and grading the different levels of students’ work over all year levels.
Answers to Assignment Questions
Chosen technologies to support learning in a classroom: Wikis and WebQuests
1. How might a Wiki and a WebQuest be used in a teaching program and how might its use support teaching?
WebQuests and the framework that they utilise have many advantages to offer a teaching program. The framework is one that supports the constructivist teaching platform. Both WebQuests and Wikis have three constructs perceived by teachers as critical to WebQuests: constructivist problem solving, social interaction, and scaffolded learning. WebQuests are mainly used for inquiry oriented learning in which learners interact with resources on the internet, develop interpersonal and collaborative skills and engage in higher order thinking. (Zheng 2008, p.1)
WebQuests can support teaching as it offers the opportunities for open ended activities; allows children to build on their existing knowledge to effect conceptual change and provides additional protection for them as they are not randomly surfing the internet in their hunt for relevant information.
Wikis allow for collaborative learning which is an integral platform of the constructivist learning model as well the development of many ICT skills.
Both Wikis and WebQuests can be used as part of either a unit or a smaller sequence of lessons. In addition to this they can provide both formative and summative assessment opportunities for the teacher as they progress through the WebQuest, and collate their information onto their Wiki for publication.
Advantages of WebQuests according to Burleson are:
Students are provided with online resources and are asked to use this information constructively to solve the presented problem rather than just cutting and pasting material into an assignment or project.
WebQuests are inquiry-oriented activities designed to make the most of the student's time.
2. What learning do you anticipate will occur through the use of the Wiki and a WebQuests and how might it differ from what would be learned in a more traditional classroom without the technology?
- There are many varieties of learning that would occur through the use of these technologies.
They are as follows: Wikis- ICT usage and familiarity with different programs
- Researching skills
- Observation skills
- Patience and perseverance when dealing with varying difficulties of technology as things don’t always go right and you need to be innovative
- Group work skills- collaboration, communication, cooperation.
WebQuestsIn this particular unit it is anticipated that the students will learn the following through participation in this WebQuest:
In a more traditional setting the children would be seeking their information in the transmissive vehicle of text books, encyclopedias and worksheets. Whilst they would learn sounds researching skills in using written text, this knowledge would be limited to just that.
3. What problems might teachers encounter in using the technology?
Wikis.
Using a wiki in a classroom to support student learning poses a number of problems. These include:
· Access to computers and the internet
The most obvious problem in using wikis is whether computers and internet access are available to students in the classroom environment. If the students have no access to computers then using a wiki in class is obviously not going to work out, for they depend on internet access.
Wikis are also a fantastic way of enabling students to contribute to the learning from the comforts of their own home. However teachers cannot expect students to work on a wiki project from home, because perhaps not every student has access to the internet out of school.
· The teacher’s ability to use the software
To fully understand wiki technology and be able to successfully use it to create a collaborative, online publishing and discussion medium teachers themselves need to be able to use the software. Before asking students to use a wiki, teachers need to explore how to use it for themselves, particularly those teachers who are not technologically inclined. If teachers plan on using a wiki in the classroom, it is imperative that they know how to use the software, not only so they better understand the reasons why a wiki can aid learning, but also because they need to be able to provide answers to those students who have questions about how something is done on a wiki.
· The students’ ability to use the software
Despite the abundance of technology in our lives, not all students are competent in using technology and there may be some students in the class who will find using a wiki challenging. To help students get the best out of using a wiki, the teacher should spend at least one lesson teaching the students how to use the software. This could be done through a step-by-step demonstration of the basics, followed by giving the students free time to explore its use.
· Internet privacy
Like any other internet application, personal privacy on the web is always an issue. People of all types can access any of the content on the web, and sadly there are a number of people out there who use the internet for evil intents. Teaching students about internet safety is a must for any teacher intending to use a wiki or any other web technology. In an online environment students should “never reveal information about where they live, where they work, and anything else that might identify them to potential predators” (Richardson, 2009, p. 12). Usually it is quite okay for people to use their first name when publishing online content, however “complete anonymity is the safest route when publishing” (Richardson, 2009, p. 13), especially for students. For our wiki we have decided to give students pseudonyms to keep their identity safe. In keeping with our wiki’s topic, plants, students will each go by the name of a flowering plant.
One of the reasons why wikis are so popular is due to their capacity to allow anyone to edit their content. In an educational setting this makes for a fantastic collaborative tool, however it also creates a problem – do we want anyone from anywhere in the world to edit our wiki? And what if someone goes into our class wiki and vandalises it by erasing content or adding vulgar content?
To prevent such problems teachers need to set up the wiki to be private. This will then allow the teacher to have full control over who is allowed to join and edit the wiki. Not all wiki applications allow such control, so teachers need to make an educated choice about which wiki application they choose to use in the classroom. Educational wikis on ‘wikispaces’ and ‘wetpaint’ will allow teachers to restrict the access to the wikis, so that only those you invite can edit it.
· Sabotage of work and reluctance in publishing for fear of disrespect
Because wikis allow members to edit its content at anytime, students essentially have free rein to alter content. This could pose problems to the integrity of the work, whereby students might be vengeful and deliberately sabotage the work of others. In a collaborative environment such as a wiki, teachers need to highlight the importance of respecting the contributions of others, by ensuring students are aware that deliberate sabotage of work is not accepted behaviour. Also teachers need to ensure students edit the work of others in a way that is constructive. Comments about others’ work should also be constructive rather than critical.
When content is added to a wiki all students in the class can see it. This may cause a problem to those students who are shy about displaying their work, especially if they fear that their work isn’t good enough and might be disrespected by others. In using a wiki “students must be able to overcome their reluctance to allow others to see their unfinished working documents, and must be willing to let others contribute changes” (Parker & Chao, 2007, p. 62). The teacher needs to ensure everyone is aware that work on the wiki is a collaborative effort and by working together, not individually, students are producing a better, richer result.
WebQuests
In using a WebQuest teachers may encounter various problems including:
· Access to computers and the internet
A WebQuest relies heavily on students being able to access the internet. In using a WebQuest, teachers need to ensure that students will have access to all sites required by the WebQuest. Also, content on the internet changes all the time, and often links to web pages that may have worked the previous year, no longer function. Prior to setting the WebQuest, teachers need to check all web links work correctly, by clicking on each one and ensuring it takes the students to the site intended.
· It takes time for teachers to develop effective WebQuests
One of the major problems in using a WebQuest in a classroom is the time it takes for a teacher to develop the WebQuest. Although the internet offers a variety of sites that make publishing the WebQuest simple, the actual design of the WebQuest is far from simple. Zheng et al (2008, p. 302) describes the designing and developing of a WebQuest as a “complex process that involves careful planning by putting in perspective all variables that may influence the learner’s learning, including social, psychological, cognitive, developmental, and so on.” In designing a WebQuest teachers need to be clear about what they want students to get out of their learning so they can create a WebQuest task that meets those learning goals and encourages higher-level thinking.
Also, another problem in designing a WebQuest is the selection of appropriate websites to be used. Because anyone can create content on the internet, not everything that appears on the internet is correct. Teachers need to be careful in selecting websites for their WebQuests, and ensure the reliability and accuracy of their chosen web pages. Questions to ask include – who has created this website?, are the publishers from a reliable company?, and, does the author give references for source of the information?
As well as ensuring the information on the website is reliable and accurate, teachers also need to make assessments about the site’s appropriateness for their students. Is the site accessible to the students in the class in terms of whether they can understand the information, navigate through it, and most importantly is the content free from profanities and inappropriate content?
· The appeal of the WebQuest
“Schweizer and Kossow (2007) observe that with WebQuests, students are motivated to learn
content information and engaged in ‘higher level thinking skills required to complete the task’ (cited in Zheng et al, 2008, p. 296), however this is not the case if students are not interested in the topic the WebQuest asks them to explore. Teachers need to be aware of the individual interests of the students and tailor the WebQuests to meet those interests. Ensuring WebQuests appeal to students’ interests will help motivate the students in learning, and ultimately encourage the students to stick to the task, work well, and engage in the higher-level of critical thinking that the WebQuest aims to draw out of students.
· Group Work
WebQuests ask students to work together to research and solve the problems. Group work can be quite challenging for students and lead to many problems, including disagreements, unequal shares of work, and different view points on how something should be done. To help alleviate problems when working in groups, teachers should assign specific roles to each student and ensure that students designate the work load evenly. Teachers should also help students to come up with compromises and provide support to those groups who struggle in working together.
· Distractions on the Internet
Another problem in using WebQuests is that students may become distracted when using the internet. Even though the WebQuest directs students to specific web pages and sites, it is easy for students to move onto other websites that are not related to the task. If the students are left unsupervised when completing the WebQuest, or they find it uninteresting, then they are more likely to get distracted from the task by venturing out of the designated web links to sites that are of greater interest to them.
4. How will student learning be evaluated?
Assessing a Wiki.
The students’ learning will be observed and evaluated through the utilisation of an assessment rubric. ‘A rubric is a printed set of criteria for assessing knowledge, performance or product and for giving feedback’ (Department Of Education And Early Childhood Development, 2009). The rubric will assess students’ on their contribution towards the Wiki through the addition of predictions and observations, to their ability to upload images and drawings. The students will also be assessed on an individuals’ understanding of the germination process, respect towards other students produced work, as well as their capability to produce a poster on Glogster. Implementing an assessment rubric provides both the students and the teacher with explicit marking criteria which allows a fair and standardised result. This rubric however differs from the rubric created for the WebQuest, in that it covers all areas of assessment including diagnostic, formative and summative. Diagnostic as the students’ are encouraged to make a prediction of what will happen to their seed before the observations begin, allowing previous conceptions to arise. The formative assessment is viewed as the students’ continue to add to their observations, ideas and pictures on the Wiki page over a period of time. Summative evaluation occurs at the end with the child’s designed poster being the final task to illustrate to the teacher their built understanding of the germination process. The inclusion of an assessment rubric allows teachers to effectively evaluate students’ learning and development and permits students to recognise what amount of effort will need to be placed on a task to achieve a result that they are happy with. Assessment rubrics are being implemented as a main style of assessment across a variety of grades and curriculum subjects.
Assessing a WebQuest.
Within the WebQuest the students’ learning will be viewed and evaluated by the answers to the quiz and through the completion of the task based on an assessment rubric. The rubric is created by the teacher ‘based on his or hers expectation of the learners’ (Halat, E 2008). This rubric outline could be utilised by both the students and teachers. As the teachers can discover students who are having difficulties completing the task and where more support is needed within the topic. As for the learners themselves they could ‘compare and contrast what they have learnt and accomplished’ (Halat, E 2008). Allowing the child to produce work and complete the task with the amount of effort required to achieve their desired mark. The rubric can be categorised as a formative and summative assessment as both the students and teachers are able to view the marking criteria as desired and the criteria is relevant to the stages of the task and the finished product. The quiz however is a part of summative assessment which will occur once the children have completed their task, to demonstrate to the teacher their newly found understandings of the task. The only type of assessment which is not included in the WebQuest is diagnostic assessment, as once the students’ have completed all tasks on the Wiki they can begin the WebQuest. This means that the students will enter the WebQuest task with some background comprehension on the germination process, which will then be further extend upon. This method of evaluation is encouraged through the labelled tabs placed onto the WebQuest and the use of assessment rubrics is how most teachers are now effectively evaluating and grading the different levels of students’ work over all year levels.