Wiki's - Collaborative Learning

I can't say that I am well acquainted with wiki's and how they could be used to their full potential. However, after having a bit of a look around I believe they could be a useful resource for project based learning where collaboration between students and the teacher is required.

Kearsley and Shneiderman's (1999) engagement theory is based upon the principles that in order to achieve engaged learning, students need to have activities that promote team work and involve communication, planning, management and social skills (relate). The activities should also be creative and purposeful focusing on student centered learning, where the students define the nature of the activity (create). Also if the activity is authentic and has a "real life" focus or "customer" the students can see relevance in carrying out the learning experience (donate).

I have created a wiki site called The Green Page. The year 11 Multi-strand class that I have been taking are doing an Environmental unit, later in the unit we will start looking at Environmental Issues. My intention is to incorporate this wiki into my learning experiences in a way that satisfies the engagement theory of Relate, Create and Donate. However, as yet I am unsure how I will achieve this but am in discussion with my mentor teacher, looking at possibilities.


References

Kearsley, G & Shneiderman, B. (1999) Engagement Theory: A Framework for technology-based teaching and learning. Retrieved on 10 April 2010 from http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm