Learning Space Reflections

This week we have been looking at the following three learning spaces:

• Blogs
• Wikis
• Websites

The idea is to get to know each learning space and pick one for a more in depth evaluation.

Well my heart was set on wiki's but now that I have been setting up my weebly web-site and have worked out that I can include my Blog and Wiki as separate pages on my web-site I think a web-site has a lot of advantages as well.  For example putting together units of learning that incorporate wiki's and blogs. That way you can use the benefits of each space for different learning experiences.

Before I make a final decision about which space to concentrate on, I am going to look at each learning space individually  with the use of PMI charts. Lets Start with Blogs!

Blogs

Plus	Minus	Implications
Great reflection tool Simple to use once you know your way around them Can't be changed by anyone but the author unless the author's share the one log-on Publicly viewed An effective space for putting opinions and information Comments can be made on the information or opinions and a dialogue can be set-up through those comments Can be edited as the author's ideas change making the blog an evolving space for learning. Has a simple tool bar Can link and embed material	While you can receive feedback by way of comments, blogs for the most part appear to be mostly a one way discussion. I think the comments are usually based around the author's posting and ideas and leaves little room for extensive introduction of ideas from elsewhere.  If the blog is edited there does not appear to be any history of past thoughts and postings There is limited material that can be created within the blog. Most material needs to be created outside the blog and then either embedded or linked into the discussion	Blogs are very good at being a space for reflection and organising or consolidating learning activities or concepts. In relation to the learning area of mathematics they can be a space for posting results of learning experiences held outside of the blog. For example charts and statistics could be embedded with a discussion of the results. In relation to business learning areas a similar use could be to post results of SWOT anaylsis or financial summaries etc and receive comments on the author's anaylsis. Blog's are a very good tool for a learner to consolidate learning done elsewhere and receive comments by the way of feedback on their ideas

In general Blogs are very useful learning spaces. Although, in my opinion their best use is for individual reflections, receipt of feedback and posting of results and consolidations of learning activities. All of these activities in blogs help the learner organise and understand their learning materials and experiences. While blogs can be considered collaborative as they are publicly viewed and afford the use of comments, they need more creativity to extend that collaboration. One example may be by creating group blogs. However, I think there are better spaces for extensive group interactive learning activities such as wikis.

What can a Wiki do? 

What are the limitations? 

How can I incorporate one into my teaching design?

Let's look at these questions using a PMI chart.

Link to my wiki

Plus	Minus	Implications
Enables collaborative learning regardless of physical presence. User friendly tool bar. Students can all contribute Information on the Wiki can be continuously updated there are different settings for who can view and edit the wiki There is a history which can be restored if information is deleted and later required. Information can be very well organised by the use of pages, links, table of contents etc Has a comments feature which could be used by either the facilitator or other students	Students can delete other students work either deliberately or by accident Students cannot work in the wiki concurrently as only one of the students work will be saved. Can be very messy and difficult to navigate depending on the students skills in using the wiki Students like to present information differently, so if they are all using the same space some students may feel uncomfortable with the layout contributed by other students.	Very good opportunities for collaborative learning Small group brainstorming is very useful in a wiki whether it be by a scaffold such as debono's 6 thinking hats or setting up a wiki page as a place to add words, pictures, videos etc as ideas in any format that can be later organised and evaluated on a separate wiki page using a different scaffold such as a concept map for example. Wiki's have the capabilites to organise information enabling them to facilitate an extensive research assignment or body of work which has been thought out, critiqued and organised. This can be done collaboratively in groups the members of which are in different locations. Eg it may be students in their homes on the other side of town or class projects sharing with schools on the other side of the world. All with the ability to contribute to the wiki. Follow this link for examples of wikis currently used in educational situations

Wiki's do have a lot of potential for learning and teaching. As I have stated in my previous reflection on using a wiki, I did initially find them messy. Now, with a little more experience I realise they do not have to be and although I was initially uncomfortable with the messiness, the messiness when it exists can also be used as part of the learning experience. Sometimes, the messiness can even be part of the scaffold. I am going to look further at the use of wiki's in my next reflection.

How can a web-site fit in to a learning design? 

Link to my website

Plus	Minus	Implications
Cannot be edited without the permission of the author There is the possibility of multiple authors to be set-up which can allow extended collaborative learning experiences There is a variety of types of material that can be created within the web-site. The web-site does allow linking and embedding as well There is the opportunity to organise pages within the web-site which are actually blogs and or wiki's The web-site can be simple to use for beginners Web-sites can also get as complicated as the author's skills permit Web-sites encourage creativity through their versatility of design features	Because there is no edit feature when there is only one author, comment boxes and other opportunities would need to be embedded in the web-site if collaborative learning is to take place on the web-site	Web-sites create opportunities for communicating with parents by creating a class web-site populated with learning material from the class as a whole. Individual student web-sites could also be viewed by parents who wish to view their children's learning experiences. Websites can facilitate communication between students and teachers for example inter-active homework pages by embedding links to education sites etc Student websites could be used by business students to put together research projects and publish them on-site. Some examples could be of the nature of marketing a product, how to manage finances, looking at economies etc Maths students could apply mathematical skills to solve real-life problems and publish on their web-site. Some examples may be setting up a web-site page to calculate conversions for  the everyday chef in the kitchen. eg pounds to kg etc The web-site could look like a chef's web-site with recipes and pictures with a conversion calculator embedded in the middle.

Well this one was a surprise for me, I thought web-sites where something you paid somebody else to do. I am sure that there are a lot of situations where that is still true but WOW they are available to everyone! I found setting up the web-site incredibly easy. More than that I can certainly see how they can be used in a TPACK learning design. While web-sites do not have the same level of collaborative learning attributes of wikis they could still certainly fit into a social constructivist learning theory.

The web-site could be set-up in a learning environment with access from either one author, or three and have as a benefit, the content protected from outside parties. For example 3 students could all have access to log-in to the web-site as the author and make changes. If there is a need for more open collaboration, web-sites can be organised to the extent of creating pages within the web-site that are essentially the student's wiki or blog. In the case of a group of 3 students working on a web-site there could also be 3 pages one dedicated to each individual student's wiki or blog. To me, that allows the integration of the benefits of technology in a more robust way than just a link, which I think is awesome.

As we can see from the PMI charts above all 3 learning spaces have different affordances so being able to bring them together neatly in one space is wonderful.

As much as I loved the web-site and I certainly found it easy to use, I cannot let go of the wiki as my main learning space for further investigation. I like the potential for high degrees of collaborative learning and also found that I became very comfortable with the tool bars reasonably quickly. I can also see that although I feel like I can do a lot in a wiki already, there appears to be so much more for me to learn. I do think however, that outside of my course-work I am certainly going to find a use for all three learning spaces in the implementation of my personal learning design.

Ethical, Safe and Legal Practices

One thing in common with all three of these on-line learning spaces is the necessary use of ethical, safe and legal practices. At this stage of my learning, I cannot see any differences between the three learning spaces when it comes to the issue of referencing, attribution and safe and ethical practices. The fact that it is so easy to put third party information within an on-line learning space, whether it be photos, video or text just to mention a few, makes it even more important to consider the implications of referencing and attributing to the original authors or creators. The website at smart copying gives a lot of information about theses requirements particularly for wiki's and blogs.

What we as teachers need to do in whatever space we are using with our students is to ensure we include the skills of referencing and attribution as part of the learning process in order to make it second nature for our students. In order to start this process we need to set a good example in the materials that we are presenting to our students. Another important way of integrating this mind-set is to ensure that students when they are doing collaborative learning attribute any ideas from their fellow students into their own work. Apart from the obvious requirement that it is the right thing to do, it would also feel special to the students to feel like their personal work is acknowledged even if it is from a student in the same classroom.

In addition to attribution, it is also important as part of our scaffolding to ensure that students are using ethical language, pictures and practices on their learning spaces. We need to ensure students have an understanding of what this means so some learning time would also need to be spent with students when introducing and of the three learning spaces. We also need to consider whether the content of any media we include on a learning space is suitable. For example have we received permission from the parents or guardians of any children under the age of 18? Have we disclosed too much personal information about any students on our learning space?

Possibly one area to consider though, is the monitoring rights we have as teachers / facilitators on each of these sights. As far as I am aware from my experience in investigating these learning spaces, all three would be able to be overseen by the teacher / facilitator to some degree but possibly not 100% of the time.

IN SUMMARY, I think all three web-sites are very useful learning spaces. I am going to further examine Wiki's in my next posting and look at how they can be incorporated into my learning design framework.