Tamara James-Wyachai

Page history last edited by Tamara 1 yr ago

Student/Teacher Collaboration

through Wikis and Voicethread

(NB: A two-part workshop -- you must sign up for both Session 1 & Session 2)

If you've registered for this workshop, please scroll down to the bottom of the page for links

Wikis are an easy way to keep your students (or teaching team) up to date, organized, and collaborating. PBWiki unveiled an updated version over the summer, with features that improve organization, access and functionality. Through embedding a variety of fun and educational gadgets, a wiki can both inform and entertain – while allowing easy and relatively painless updating and tracking. It can also be a great tool to encourage students, who are more comfortable online than on paper, to share their ideas, feedback and stories.

The two challenges many teachers face in creating a wiki are how to get started and how to follow through once students become involved. Effective wikis can be made by focusing on purpose and desired outcome; clearly defined etiquette, tasks and assessment make maintenance of student input transparent and simple.

Students are usually eager sharers but reluctant writers. Those with special needs can find putting pen to paper quite frightening. Unlocking student enthusiasm through providing more variety in their ways to present their ideas makes the storytelling process less daunting. Podcasting is quite helpful for dyslexic or fine-motor-challenged students, as they can develop their self-expressions through recorded stories which can then be transferred into writing. All students need practice in planning and preparation: Voicethreads provide a simple medium through which students can make great interactive, online “scrapbooks” that are open to collaboration and feedback.

The point of this workshop is to enhance collaboration. After visiting the many tools available to generate wikis and digital stories, it is important to look at ways to keep the sites “alive” through revisiting, embedding, linking and commenting. Students need to connect past projects to new ones, and collaborative teams need to incorporate the wikis or Voicethreads into daily practice. Through investigating and discussing various established wikis and Voicethreads, workshop participants can find those methods which best match their needs.

Audience: MS/HS

Workshop materials: a thumbdrive with three pictures would be helpful, but not essential. There will be handouts.

Presenter:

Tamara James-Wyachai

Overseas Family School

Middle School Humanities Teacher

t_james-wyachai@ofs.edu.sg

Tamara has been an educator since 1989 in a variety of schools. She holds a BA from Bennington College in VT, USA, received her MSEd from CUNY Hunter College and NY state certification through the New York City Teaching Fellowship and AmeriCorps Teach for America programmes. Tamara began as a residential counselor for emotionally-challenged teens, and has worked as a programme developer for schools in Taiwan and Thailand. She is also a writer, and worked as a copyeditor and columnist for The Nation in Bangkok, Thailand. Currently, Tamara is the Subject Area Leader for Language A English at Overseas Family School in Singapore.

Audiovisual requirements: Computers with internet connection, overhead projector connected to one computer, computer microphone