Web+Development

 **WEB DEVELOPMENT - Creating a WikiSpace**   **Awareness**  I became aware of wikis in 2007 when I started exploring different ways I could engage my some of my more challenging behaviour students in Grade Four and I wanted a way they could work alone yet be collaborating with others – viola I stumbled upon and began considering the wiki! At that time wikis were still an allowable website with the public education system here in Queensland so it was a great time to begin exploring!   **Exploration**  For the next four weeks, about five kids and myself were in our classroom every lunch break exploring together wikispaces and seeing what we could do with it. The kids enjoyed designing their projects in the wikispace and having others provide feedback on it in a fairly timely manner. We didn't do any tutorials on it at all, rather it was more of a play and learn together mode of exploration. Wikis soon became a preferred way of working on projects for many of my students and they soon became a key learning tool.   **Filtration**  Since those early days of exploring wikis and how we could use them to create, collaborate, discuss, evaluate & recreate using wikispaces, the education organisation for which I worked has since blocked wikispaces and sites like it on all their machines. So we began using the wiki tools available to us in the approved Blackboard platform on our school networks. Wikis in this forum became common place for many student learning experiences, both in the classroom and outside. We even organised a wiki for the students to place song requests for the school disco! :)      **Learning**     What I took away from learning about wikis is the ease at which they can be integrated into the educational program. They serve so many purposes they are fantastic. I loved being able to learn alongside with my students as we discovered different aspects and shared this. I also learnt how contagious excitement from being engaged in learning makes big impacts not only on the student but also their families. The students ended up holding parent information afternoons on “how to start and use a wiki” - very empowering stuff.       **Personal & Professional Application**     I must admit I haven't used a public wiki for a couple of years so it was really fun to get back into it and put this one together. Although I think I forgot how particular I can be and thus it became a little more time consuming than I allocated for the task. Oh well. :) I've decided to set this wiki up to not only meet the requirements of this course, but as a living document which will document my learning journeys so that they can be shared with other colleagues travelling similar paths. I would like to see the wiki support others just beginning their journey, which is at the heart of my aspirations for change in education, supporting others to become high quality teachers.   <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> **Sharing and Reflecting**    <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> I am a big advocate of open and honest reflection and sharing these with a wider audience so genuine feedback and different perspectives can be gained. By doing this it also allows us to see the bigger picture more clearly I believe. In my blog //To Learn from Within// this is exactly where I am currently reflecting and sharing my thoughts with the greater population of the world. I will continue this same commitment here in this course.