I haven't used a Wiki for my class. I used the Universtiy WebVista to post the syllabus, handouts and other resources. When I used WebVista in my classroom, students' role was very passive. After I learn about Wiki, I found that a Wiki might be more useful for a langauge classroom. Using a wiki, I can organize the class as well as promote the collaborative works. In addition to usins a wiki for the colloborative writing with groups, students and teacher may also can use it to give the feedback to each other.
According to the Second Langauge Acqusition theory, students need to negotiate a meaning and form throuth the interaction to learn the langauge. During the interaction, feedbacks can help them to notice their errors as well as new forms. To provide the learning enviroment which is supported by this SLA theory, I found that wiki and voice thread would be useful tool.
I plan to ask students to make a VoiceThread sideshow after collecting pics according to their group topic. Then, they will be asked to write descriptions and essays on the topic in the wiki. Wiki will be also used to organize their resources, writing plans and drafts.
After completing the writing process, they will be asked to leave comments on the other groups works.
One thing I am worried about using a wiki for the collaborative work is how I can manage the process in a way that every student participates in equally. Some students may lead their group dominantly. Especially, when a learner's langauge proficiency is not good, she or he may passively participate, and lose the chance to learn the language.
Also, some students may need to spend too much time to learn how to use a wiki or blog. Well.. my students are younger than me so using a wiki or blog may not be a big deal. I am sure that they learn new technologies much faster than me. :) However, I don't want that students cannot learn the langauge effectively because they are not good at learning technologies.
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- I am a ph.D student in the Second Langauge and Culture program at the University of Minnesota
1 comment:
Excellent ideas!
First, I like what you say about Course Management Systems being very "passive" for students. I have to use WebVista for my other class, and it's basically a "one-way" website, not much interaction at all. We've done two "discussions," but not very exciting at all.
Second, it sounds like the SLA theory is very similar to theories about the writing process used in college-level composition/writing classes. And I can see VoiceThread being very useful for your students, having to write and speak their "scripts" in the language they are learning.
Third, it sounds like your plans for using your wiki are very close to my plans: organizing resources, and writing and sharing drafts.
Fourth, I really like what you say about students participating equally. Really, we could see the wiki as just another in-class small-group discussion, or a group project, where some members dominate, others do all the work, and others just sit back and do nothing. This is a big concern. You might post this on the class Ning for people to talk about -- or bring it up in class.
Finally, your worry about learning the technology interfering with learning the language is legitimate, I think. You might consider "surveying" your students during the first day or two to get a sense of their technology skills or proficiencies. Then you can make some adjustments before introducing them to the wiki, like planning more training, for example.
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