Many of us have been teaching our students process writing which involves much feedback from the teacher and limited collaboration among students, if the end product is not a group effort. However, as reading specialists, we must be ever mindful of the evolutionary nature of literacy and the ways in which it is manifested in the twenty-first century. Undoubtedly, wikis are an added dimension to literacy that can be used to enhance the writing process. Since they are designed to support social interaction and collaboration in a digital setting, teachers can now have students write with wikis and edit each other's writing for grammar and spelling. There can also be peer review in which students can post drafts and and invite other students to comment.
In a wiki as well, groups can write short stories or expositions together. Group members can share and organize ideas, and as the piece develops, there is ongoing review and editing with guidance from the teacher. In addition, visual literacy may be incorporated and developed where pictures are used to illustrate, as well as to help create mood and tone and other effects intended by the authors.
When our students are engaged in this manner, writing should become more exciting and enjoyable, and less onerous than pen and paper exercises (which are ever waning in popularity among our charges). Once they are taught rules and guidelines for online social interaction and for using the Internet, it might be possible for them to become more inspired by the experience of writing wikis.
Hi Beverly,
ReplyDeleteI must say that your blog was very informative. I love the idea of collaborative learning. I believe that we can learn a lot more through collaboration than by individual sessions. Things are learnt because you were a part of the learning process.
I agree with you that the use of wiki in the reading classroom is an excellent tool that teachers can use to foster collaborative teaching and learning. If students are given the opportunity to correct each other's grammatical and vocabulary errors, it will enhance the learning process. As you said learning will become engaging and exciting.
As you said once web etiquette is taught, students will enjoy this process tremendously. We need to get rid of the chalk and talk and allow student to become apart of their learning process.
Hi Beverly,
ReplyDeleteHaving dealt with wikis and writing in my web 2.0 paper,I was attracted to this post. I am very excited, as well, by the numerous possibilities to enhance the student's writing ability using this digital tool. As students engage in the process of editing each other's drafts, their leaning will be reinforced and they would also appreciate the need for grammar and other language conventions.
They would certainly be enthused to use technology in the learning process. With the wiki and the other new technologies, the future of teaching seems bright and promising.
All the best.