Enhancing communication of learning using Wikispaces

Tags: Technology | Blogging | Publishing | Secondary | Upper secondary |

This snapshot describes how students at Ashburton College used Wikispaces to present the results of an inquiry into career planning.

Choosing Wikispaces

The classroom teacher wanted her year 10 students to present information in an alternative way during an inquiry into career planning. Previously they had created booklets and posters to share their learning.

The teacher decided that the students would create wikis using Wikispaces because:

• wikis are a motivating ICT tool
• students’ work can be easily shared both within the class and with a wider audience
• students can create wikis away from the classroom.

Using Wikispaces

Before using Wikispaces with students, the teacher practiced registering and setting up web spaces using a wiki . A mentor helped her initially.

The teacher embedded videos and updated a previously used careers booklet. She also included a page of resources on researching effectively for student reference.

The teacher created a page for each of the students, providing them with their own space that they were accountable for. These pages included space for feedback and evaluation.

The inquiry research was done by linking to CareersQuest online tool.

Once students had completed their research notes, they presented their findings on their individual pages, uploading pictures, and embedding videos.

Student outcomes

The students found Wikispaces to be an easy to use tool for presenting work. The teacher noted that the novelty of using the wiki, along with increased visibility of work throughout the duration of the unit, led to a number of improvements in student outcomes including:

• increased buy-in to topic
• increased student engagement throughout the topic
• more class discussions around each of the careers due to the visibility of work
• greater task completion – all students worked to finish their pages due to there being an interested audience for their work
• improved quality of presentation – students were more willing to improve their own pages upon viewing interesting work by others
• increased student accountability

Teacher reflection

The teacher reflected that the time she spent exploring Wikispaces prior to teaching helped her to maximise the use of the wiki, and ensured that she was able to teach the students how to use the wiki effectively.

Useful assessment information was gathered by looking at the changes that individual students made to their wiki through page history.

The teacher plans to use wikis again in future career topics, and is interested in finding other ways to make use of wikis to support her classroom programme.