connected Learning communities
For the past year I have been building wikis with the students in my English classes. Using the ‘free’ wiki website, wetpaint.com I was able to get students to post their own content and share their work, thoughts and opinions. There have been a few frustrating issues to contend with. The website broke down and students couldn’t comment. Those using Mac computers (like me) didn’t have full editing capacity, and then the website started introducing very invasive advertising. Reading about the latest teen flick or where to get a hot date didn’t really complement our Macbeth discussions very well!
Finally (after several years of promises) our department of education has released its connected learning communities (cLc) website. The ‘cLc’ has been designed to be a ‘one-stop’ virtual learning environment, in which teachers can keep records of student achievement, provide students with access to feedback and records, share resources and support material as well as providing students with access to collaborative online learning tools such as blogs, wikis and discussion forums. In the ‘cLc’ each student has their own homepage, which can be personalized and which will eventually contain a portfolio record of their learning across all subject areas.
I have started to shift from my commercial saturated wiki site to the cLc. Firstly I transferred all my assessment records to site. Now my students can log in and view an individual list of their assessment records. This has resulted in a mad rush to ensure that they have submitted all assessment items, suddenly they have all become keenly aware of missing tasks!
This led me to start thinking about the capacity of this virtual learning environment to store and display portfolio records of student achievement. In the past we have used portfolio assessment, but the question of where to store the vast quantities of paperwork that each student accumulated led us to simply hand the work back after discussing it. Now we can have an electronic record, that students can review and describe in relation to readily available assessment feedback.
Once the ‘cLc’ is fully operational I will be able to click on any student’s name and see all the work they have submitted electronically as well as their contributions to wikis, blogs and forums throughout the course. This will provide teachers and the students with a comprehensive picture of their learning. However, this is not just about recording the learning and storing information, it is also about creating learning experiences that build on the learning itself. My recent experiences using wikis in a novel study have proved to me how such technology can facilitate learning that builds towards and can scaffold further learning experiences.
Finally we have a purpose built tool, which enables us to use information technologies to their full educational capacity!
I am really excited about it.
