There are so many tools that are available to teachers to enhance her classroom. Teachers should no longer be fixed to chalk and talk. Teachers need to be educated on some of the tools available to them to make their classroom come alive and become an eager place for learning. Two tools that I found quite interesting and easy to use are blogs and wikis.
A blog is a tool that the reading teacher or any content area teacher can use to encourage collaborative teaching or have individual sessions. A blog is part of a website that allows individual to post information. Of course you will have to sign up for it but once that is done, the teacher can get the addresses of students blogs and start posting information to them. She can post assignments, information and ask student to comment on the information, can ask students to upload information that other students can comment on. as a reading tool the reading teacher can post comprehension passages or can post stories and ask students to comment on them. She can ask students to post their story or part of their story and ask students to comment or continue the story. Good tool for us to implement in the classroom.
A wiki is also another tool that can be used in the classroom to encourage collaborative or individual learning. It is a tool that is available on the internet free of charge, again once you sign up for it.
- It allows the user to monitor the constantly changing state of the wiki and discuss the issues that emerge.
- Add summaries of their thoughts from prescribed readings.
- Publish course resources such as handouts
- Can be use to map concepts such as brainstorming and editing a given wiki topic which can produce a linked network of resources.
- Can be used as a presentation tool and students can can comment directly an and revise the presentation content.
- It can also be a good tool for group authoring.
Reading and writing works side by side and one of the most common pedagogical application of wiki is supporting writing instruction. (Lamb,2004). It maximizes the advantages of reflection, publication, reviewing and observing cumulative written results as they unfold.
- It stimulates writing
- Provides a low-cost communication and collaborative tool that focus on text rather than software
- Promote close reading, revision and tracking of preliminary work
- Discourage 'product oriented writing' while facilitating 'writing as a process'
- Prepare students into the writing for a wider audience.
Hi Thilica,I've read your post on blogs and wikis. I too, am amazed at the technology that is available to us as teachers.We have so many tools available at our fingertips and some of us aren't even aware of it.This is why professional development is so important to teachers. The summer courses that the MOE advertised for this summer has been called off. I don't know if it's because of the new government and the restructuring of certain ministries but there goes profesional development for teachers.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to do the one on assessment and critical literacy.Anyway, I am fascinated by the ebooks and the digital photostory. I looked at some of them on myelearning. Imagine that they are for children and I am enjoying them.I see lots of possibilities for use in the classroom except a lot of practice and planning would be needed by the teacher before they can be used as effective tools. I feel that the labs have been rushed down for the slower ones like myself and we have not been given the quality time like we deserve. We might be "Masters" students but we are students nonetheless.We need and deserve student centred and treatment.I think that your blog posts are informative and interesting.