Wiki's in the classroom

My rough draft of a wiki unit follows:

Online Tests/quizzes

As I have been unable to access ICT's in my prac classroom I have asked my Year 5 daughter to have a go at making an online quiz using a topic that interests her. She decided to create a quiz about Harry Potter. Creating the quiz was easy and she thoroughly enjoyed the process, however we have discovered a problem after the quiz was embedded in this blog. When clicking the link below, the quiz that opens is indeed the Harry Potter quiz developed by my daughter however it has taken on the title of a previously created quiz. In trying to rectify the problem we discovered that within the Classmarker website the quiz is appropriately saved with the correct title, however it still appears incorrectly within the blog. Both myself and a colleague have made attempts to rectify the problem with no success. It is unclear if the problem was caused during the development of the quiz or if it is a glitch in the system. In assessing the usefullness of this tool for students to develop their own quizzes I would say that it is certainly not beyond young students to develop quizzes however some assistance may be required in embedding them into websites, blogs or emails etc. You are welcome to take a look at the quiz developed by this Year 5 student.

Tiarni's online quiz

http://www.classmarker.com/embedded_quizzes/?quiz=c2954e40697c5243cf1793d5a1c51740

Digital storytelling

Year three students recently went on an excursion to the Brisbane Museum as part of consolidating their learning through a unit of work on Dinosaurs. Using technology to tell the story of the excursion would be an effective way to enable students to take ownership of the experience. Digital photographs were taken by staff and parents (with consideration of privacy requirements)and these photos have been printed on copy paper and hung around the room. To further take these photos and build a digital story around the excursion would be an authentic task, developing literacy skills and ICT skills along the way. I will definately be planning for using technology in this way in my own classroom in the future.

Creative writing

Using blogs to foster creative writing with students provides a trigger for increasing motivation to improve and extend upon their storytelling skills. Blogging provides for real world feedback and I can see this as a fabulous way to provide for extension of students who are working at higher literacy levels within a cohort. The electronic ability to edit, re-write and continue to build upon an idea provides an excellent resource that can't get lost in a messy desk tray or thrown away, or eaten by the dog!!

Blogs

During my recent prac I have had no access to ICT's. In an attempt to get an idea of how students respond to this type of technology I have seconded my 10 year old daughter into action. After introducing the technology to her, she decided she would like to establish a blog about the books she has read. Using this in an authentic classroom setting would encourage students to report on books read during level reading, as well as books read for pleasure. Students might be asked to provide a short re-count of the story, and respond to questions such as: Why I like/disliked this book? How did it make me feel? Whose voice is heard/unheard in this story? Similar book to this that I have read/would like to read.
Students would be asked to post comments to their blogs on a weekly basis.

What do others think?

Powerpoint buttons

Powerpoint buttons are new to me and I'm impressed. This is a very simple process that even young children can achieve with sufficient scaffolding. During a recent unit on Australian states and territories students were asked to design a class quiz, using this technology would have been a great engagement tool, not just for those students working at higher literacy levels but also as a means to engage low literacy learners to use literacy authentically. I have developed a very basic true/false quiz that younger learners would easily be able to create. Take a look, I'd love to hear your comments.

http://www.mediafire.com/?u52mozj5mmy