Wikipedia - free media?

When I was in highschool we were often told NOT to use Wikipedia. My peers and I could never understand why because it had absolutely eveything you could think of on it explained it so clearley and precisely. Most of the time, especially for Modern History, we would look up concepts and events in Wikipedia before starting our 'real research' so we could get our heads around it first. Of course we never quoted or referenced wikipedia - our teacher would be very unimpressed if he had known we had even used it, but it did come in ever so handy!

Since then I have discovered that there is a whole lot more to wikipedia than just the free online encyclopeadia. Still, the encyclopedia part is still useful, I think, for both teachers and students in the same way I used it in highschool - to get a good background knowledge of a concept/object etc. Also, the way it has links to other pages in its descriptions, making it non-linear, is also more relevant for learners.

Learners could use Wikipedia as a Learning Resource for ICT based Learning Tasks - for research, background knowledge etc. (Oliver, 1999). Learning Managers could also use Wikipedia to 'brush up' on topic before they teach them - there are lots of little interseting facts and histories that could be used to 'provide anecdotes and interesting "asides"' in lessons that helps learners to 'percieve tasks as valuable and interesting' (Marzano & Pickering, 1997, p.31;32).

As I mentioned, there is a whole world outside of Wikipedia - its the world of Wikimedia. Bellow is the list of what is included in Wikimedia, all of which is free to browse and, where applicable, use under the Creative Commons Licence.

	Wikipedia Free encyclopedia		Wikiquote Collection of quotations		Wiktionary Dictionary and thesaurus
	Wikibooks Free textbooks and manuals		Wikisource Free source documents		Wikinews Free content news source
	Commons Shared media repository		Wikispecies Directory of species		Wikiversity Free learning materials
	MediaWiki MediaWiki software coordination		Bugzilla A bug tracker for MediaWiki		Incubator For potential new language versions
	Wikimania The International Conferences		Test Wikipedia For testing software changes		Wikimedia Foundation Foundation public relations

As you can see it opens up a whole new world of options for both learners and learning mamagers. I encourage you to go through a few of them and see what you find. Things like Wiktionary and Wikiquote might be ideal things to bookmark - you never know when your learners might need to look something up, and what better a way than on a computer rather than the 'old school' book!

Marzano, R., & Pickering, D., et al (1997). Dimensions of Learning: teacher's manual. Aurora, Colorado, USA : McREL

Oliver, R. (1999). Exploring strategies for online teaching and learning. Distance Education, 20(2), 240-254.
Available from http://www.learningdesigns.uow.edu.au/project/learn_design.htm

FlickR Fun

Sun-flower...., originally uploaded by Vikaz.

When I go to Europe I am going to visit the tulip fields in Holland...

After going through the process of having to set up a Yahoo account to then set up a FlickR account, which i then had to add my Blog to and grant permission for FlickR to access it, I can finally browse, search for and use the images I find!

I must say it is quite a long process to set up an account if you don't already have a Yahoo! account (that is compared to creating accounts for other things like Voki). However, once the account is set up I can see how it can be a useful tool. I did not realise that it is not only an image/video share, but a social networking space too. I suppose thew easiest way to use this in the classroom would be for the Learning Manager to create an account for the whole class. That would save a lot of time and confusion, especially in the younger grades.

The great thing about FlickR is that you have to option to keep the images and videos you upload private, meaning you can upload class learning photos and videos with less risk, however it is still important to seek permission from each parent/guardian before doing so. As well as this, if students find/have images they need for their schoolwork, they can upload it to FlickR then access it from anywhere - no more saving it to the computer rather than their file server or forgetting which folder they saved it in!

FlickR provides Learning Resources to aid the completion of tasks performed in ICT learning environments (Oliver, 1999). Rather than searching Google Images and coming up with a random bunch of results, some of which are entirely inappropriate to the search criteria, FlickR provides a host of images and videos available for legal use under the Creative Commons Liscence. It is another way of providing an identified resources needed to successfully complete tasks, as per the ICT Learning Design Framework (Oliver, 1999).

FlickR may also be used as a tool in the Learning Engagement Theory if the 'product' of the problem is an image with a certain message etc. or a video clip. Students may work in collaborative groups (Relate) to solve a problem or CREATE a product - this could link to Technology's Information strand, Visual Literacy (English), The Arts (Visual art, or Drama)... Which is then uploaded on to FlickR (Donate) and made public for the use of others.

That just gave me an idea - in regards to Visual Literacy, FlickR might just be an excellent resource for finding visual 'texts' to use in class... What do you think?

Keirsley, G. & Shneiderman, B (1999) Engagment Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning. Available from http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm

Oliver, R. (1999). Exploring strategies for online teaching and learning. Distance Education, 20(2), 240-254.

The Wonder of WIKIs

I am not new to the world of the WIKIs.
I have mentioned an older peer who is very technologically-savvy in a previous post. Well, I have done a few group assignments with her, and for every one of those assignments she has created a WIKI for us to use. Rather than trying to schedule a 'group meeting' into our hectic lives we could jump on the WIKI whenever we had a chance to check what everyone else was up to, edit parts of the assignment, add more into it, ask questions, allocate jobs etc. For one particular assignment we each were assigned a particular section of the task. In our WIKI we had a home page that had the that had links to other pages. We each had our own page for our respective sections, we had a page for references so we could all compile the list as we went along, we had the Task and criteria sheets on another page as a reference point, and we also had a communications page for questions/comments etc. It made the whole group assignment thing alot more manageable not having to schedule meetings and having everyones up-to-date research and work at our fingertips.
Our WIKI was set to private so the lady who set it up had to 'invite' us to join, which is the safest way when having assignments on the internet. The other really good part was that when we logged on to the WIKI, we didn't have to go through each page to see what was new, we just had to go to 'recent activity' to see who had been editing which page at what time. It was a really good idea to use the WIKI in this way.

It could be equally as useful for students in our primary classrooms in a very similar way. Just like Blogs, the Engagement Theory can be used as a framework for the use of WIKIs in the classroom (Keirsley & Shneiderman, 1999). It works particularly well because WIKIs work best as a collaborative tool, which is the first principle of the Engagement Theory - 'Relate'. The main difference between the Blog and the WIKI is that with my blog idea, groups were collaborating face-to-face to post to the one blog, then checking out and commenting on other group's blogs. With the WIKI it could be used as the main place of communication and planning between group members as they collaborate with a common goal/focus. How they Donate is up to the Learning Manager depending on the Unit and the Context - it could even be the WIKI itself - when they have finished and 'tidied' it up they can give the URL for it to be viwed as the finished product, or it can purely be used for planning/communications/drafting etc. The nature of the WIKI means that the collaboration needs to be problem-based. Again, this depends on the unit of work and the context. It is up to the Learning manager to provide a meaningful context for engagement, the WIKI is just a means, or a technological tool that can effectively support the pedagogy.

Again, the WIKI gets a thumbs up from me. It is a simple to set up (especially wet paint) and an easy to use-means of communication, especially for group tasks that need to be worked on both in and out of school hours They can use the library computers at lunch time, or their own computers at home. They can work on their assignment/task without worry about losing paper, who has what etc. it's all their at their fingertips. It also means the whole class doesn't need to all be on the computer at the same time - during school group members can take turns on the computer contributing their work to their WIKI. This makes it an even more valuable ICT in our classrooms...

In all, I think WIKIs are wonderful :)

Keirsley, G. & Shneiderman, B (1999) Engagment Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning. Available from http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm

To Young to be an Immigrant?

After reading Prensky's article about Digital Natives and Immigrants, I feel that the two categories have been grossly over generalised. I am 20 years old, which automatically makes me a 'digital native'. However, I found myself not being able to identify with many of the characteristics described. Don't get me wrong, my family purchased its first computer when I was about 5 years old so it was not a 'new' thing when we started using them at school. Unlike my 3 siblings, I just find that I have had little interest in technology and intereacting with technologies other than out of necessity - researching for assignments, correspondence etc. rather than downloading music, searching YouTube, creating numerous accounts, playing games etc. as many my age tend to do.
I am continuously discovering that supposed Digital Immigrants have alot more knowledge and skills than I, and I seem to be the one with the 'accent'. One of my peers at Uni, who has just turned 40, can answer nearly any ICT question I have and continues to astound me with her knowledge and comfort in the use if ICTs - and she hasn't been working with them out of necessitiy as she has been a Nurse for the last 20 years!

I would like to pose this question - 'Are all our students going to be Digital Natives?'
I feel that in a sense they will be, in that, like myself, they have grown up surrounded by technologies and ever increasing updates in technologies. They will know about them, possibly know how they work and what they do, but will they be interested? Will they want to use them?

The future of education will no doubt be very dependent on ITCs for engagement and delivery. We as educators, like with all Curriculum areas, need to try and stay 'one step ahead', so I know that I will have to come to terms with my own attitudes about technology. I just really feel that it shouldn't be the only way of 'reaching' our children. I guess it all comes back to knowing our learners and how they best learn. That will be the most important part of creating successful learning as we embark on technology-rich curriculum in a technology-rich world.

Never forget your learners are individuals - and never assume!

Prensky, M. (2001). 'Digital Natives and Immigrants.' On the Horizon, Vol. 9 No. 5. MCB University Press.