Please watch the video on Wikis in this blog and comment on the applicability of the use of wikis to the EFL context in order to develop students' writing skills.
In what ways do you think it can contribute to the writing skill development of students? Please comment on potential challenges in incorporating a wiki in an EFL setting as well.
Also you need to find a sample wiki that is used in EFL /ESL teaching online, give the link and comment on how it is used and in what ways it contributes to the student learning.
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Wikis can be easily used by EFL/ESL teachers. They can be used in many area of language teaching. For instance, the students can be assigned to write an essay in groups of three or four. The first student can write the introduction and first body paragraph. The second student can write the third body paragraph and the others can do the rest. While every student does his/her own share, s/he can make corrections or additions to his/her friends’ works. Another use of a wiki can be the project development. A wiki makes it easy for students to write, revise and submit an assignment, since all three activities can take place in the wiki. For example, the students can be given a wiki page to develop a term paper, and might start by tracking their background research. Next, they can draft the paper in the wiki, taking advantage of the wiki’s automatic revision history that saves a before & after version of the document each time they make changes. In all these ways the students can develop their writing skills by working collaboratively without much difficulty. A third way of using wikis can be between the students learning English and the native speakers. The students who are learning English can write a letter to native speakers and the natives can correct students’ errors while writing a reply to them. But I admit that this is not an easy method to apply :(
ReplyDeleteThe use of wikis is a very good method for the students, especially for the ones who don’t have much time to come together after class hours. However they have also some challenges. For example, every student may not have a computer or an internet connection. Besides some students may not be good at using computers and they may have difficulty in using a wiki.
http://caewords.wikispaces.com/Writing+skills+collaboration
ReplyDeleteI found a very beneficial wiki for EFL/ESL students. It is a wonderful wiki because in this wiki a student can find anything that s/he needs while learning English because it doesn’t focus only on one aspect of English language teaching. Some pages are for teaching grammar structures; some are for improving writing skills and some are for teaching daily usages. For instance there is a page that has a presentation on relative clauses and the students can add their own sentences to the page for teacher’s correction. Another nice page includes an unfinished sentence which is something like the beginning of a story and the students write what will happen next. The teacher comments on their use of language. However, the teacher doesn’t only correct their mistakes; s/he also tells their successful points which will motivate the students to participate more to the activities. This page can be used to develop students’ writing skills and as their mistakes are corrected they will also improve their grammar knowledge. This wiki also includes the tips for writing a formal letter and complaint letter. In addition, it includes examples of those letters. Another nice feature of the wiki is that in a page it includes some examples to small talk and the students are asked to give a few more examples to them. This page is highly beneficial because it doesn’t teach grammar rules, it gives examples to small talks which will help students to learn and use in real life situations. I mean the students can find grammar rules in any book, but they can’t easily find such kinds of information. In another useful page there are questions about the use of language related to health. The questions are designed to help students to think about which words are used with which. As an example this question can be given: “What is the difference between to be injured and to be hurt?” These kinds of activities are also extremely beneficial for the students. To conclude I can say that it is a highly beneficial and useful wiki both for the EFL/ESL teachers and the students.
Wiki is a useful tool to make the students work together to do sth and make the lesson more enjoyable. for a lesson it is important to have enjoyable things so wiki is one of them. ın today's world, technology has been improved very much so as everyone can have this chance to use wikis. like blogs, it is also useful for everyone who can not get the information on that day can reach all the information from his or her own computer at home.
ReplyDeleteI found an example and it is on this link:
http://6thgrade-07.pbworks.com/
In this blog, the teacher gives many exercises about the topic that they see in the class together and about the exercises they do with the book they have in order to conduct the lesson. via this wiki everyone has a chance to do these exercises, improve their each skills appropriately which is important for every efl/esl learners.
In today's world, technological devices are always with us. We tend to use all the visual and variable materials in our classroom environment as well. This issue is also on the top point for teachers. In order to draw students' attention to the classroom sessions and the lecture, teachers are trying to use the latest methods and ways in teaching. They are trying to be creative in their jobs. Wikis, as I watched and learned from the video, is one of the accessable material for students on the internet environment. As English teachers, we need to focus on four basic skills' teaching. Writing is one of them. In such an electronic world students can easily use the wikis to keep journals for example. In group works they can prepare creative stories and essays by using wikis. I think it is also beneficial in long term processes. Students may use this web sides by adding or deleting their information, shortly by progressing. However,sometimes it may hard to keep up with the internet and the long term tasks. they may not be able to communicate with group members properly through e-mail. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ7-9ZpZzDY&feature=related In this web side you can have a look at how a teacher can correlate teaching and wikis.
ReplyDeletewikis have many useful aspects such as developing and posting class programs, files, and links. They are also helpful for students who are absent to keep up with what is happening in class.Also it creates such an online community that belonging to such a community affects students in a positive way and increases their motivation. Apart from that, wikis help students to maximize their opportunities related to writing.For example, learners accurately develop their social skills in the sense that they cooperate with each other instead of competition.
ReplyDeleteMoreover,wikis provide learners many other chances in developing their writing skills.For example,all students have an access to their peers' writings and they can also see their own improvements as wikis keep them in their body.
Other than self- evaluation and cooperation, wikis also direct learners to become less dependent of the teacher and share responsibility with their peers. In this digital context, they gain higher degrees of autonomy in the sense that they have to make choices while writing and providing feedback to their peers by trying out new ways of involving with the writing process.In other words,by using wikis in their language learning process, the learners become more responsible for their own learning.As a result, beneficial outcomes derive from such experiences such as; digital learners have privileges in the process, students become more sensitive and punctual in terms of the deadlines and ,finally, students as a whole acquired a better command of writing strategies.
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BByRVoDVEpM&feature=related
ReplyDelete2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdOKUeT0O-o&feature=related
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zGsLq3Oi7s&feature=related
here are my web sites about what a wiki is, how it can be used in teaching and in what ways it is beneficial for students.
As technology has developed a lot we must use it in every part of our lives and as a part of our lives we can/must use technology in class. There are a lot of technological devices/sites/tools that can be used in our classes and wiki is one of them. If we apply wikis to our writing classes it will help us a lot, especially in group works. As we see in the video one of us can start a topic and other group members contribute to the topic so that group members can make a good job without coming together. (maybe goups members don’t have time to come together and work together, by using wikis they don’t need to come together, they can contribute to group work whenever they want by using internet.)
ReplyDeleteAs we see in the video we can use wikis for mind-mapping. For exapmle instead of camping our topic could be music. Lets say İ started the topic ‘music’ other group members can contribute to it whenever they have time. They may write sub-categories such as ‘kinds of music’ or ‘instruments’ and everybody in the group will study on it easily. we can use it for our writing classes easily if we want our student to learn collabrative work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QQkFXznh7I
ReplyDeleteIn this video, the theacher mention what is wiki, how it is used, what are the benefits of using wiki. He says using wiki has lots of advantages. It is easy to use for students. And also it is easy for teacher and beneficial, he can grade students studies by looking at wiki etc....
Wikis can be used in group and collabarative work. I hate trying to get together, setting time available for every one. With the help of wikis, this can be easily overcome. Student can contribute, edit, add and save the work they are doing whenever or wherever s/he wants. This ease will make students more motivated because they won't feel trapped. Wikis can be used for collaborative writing, reading and answering comprehension questions as well as while preparing for a presentation together. It is a very clever thing.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pR5yogCmkA
This is my link for a wiki video. In the video, the teacher. Although I would not prefer carrying my laptop to the class, maybe computer labs can be used for this scenario. Here, we see the different types of documents integrated. We have a video, audio, word document, html document, access to other bookmark sites. They read what others said about the poems and see others' point of views. In literature it is very important. The more interpretation you see, the more you get creative and understand, grasp the whole thing. Not being tided up to a certain place reduces boredom. They surf on the internet, engage in different activities and complete different tasks. This varied flow surely helps students to concentrate more and have fun. The teacher points out that, while they could do all of this on a piece of paper, they do it via a notebook. This enables them to reach and interact with many people and this is exciting. A student points out that it is better than an open discussion because everyone gets to say what they want to say and while typing, they have some time to think. I agree with all of them and I think they are sincere because their body languages indicate the same thing.
I think wiki is a very useful software for efl learners. Students can make big documentations and information which is written before can be corrected. Formalization of the pages is done automatically, so it is easy to document and Access rhe information. For using it in efl classes, teacher can create a wiki firstly with using the program called Wetpaint. Then he can make up a story, but it is only the enter of the story. After that, he may want students to develop the story and upload to the website.
ReplyDeleteHere is a sample wiki page:
http://cinderella-their-story.wetpaint.com/
This wikipage is also about making up a story. It helps students to develop their creativity. It is very good that students can find words that they don't understand, add them to the glossary, add some definitions to some of the glossary words, write questions about the things which have been written.
ı think wiki software can be benefical for EFL students. it can be used in many areas. we use technology in today's world very much, we can develop ourselves with the help of softwares like wiki. we can use it for the writing skills. for example, while we are writing an essay, some of us are successful in the introduction part, and she/he may have difficulties in the other parts of the essay. if the wiki method is applied, each one contribute the essay and everyone can see their faults.Student can contribute, edit, add and save the work they are doing. for example; we have often group works, but sometimes we can not come together and can not work together, but if we apply this method, it would we very easier than coming together and waiting for each one. ı think this methos also develops our social skills, because it is also a group activity. ı think this is also a creative method and it is very useful for efl students, for example, we we will teach the if clause to the students. our topic is if clause. we will teach the topic in a story. we can ask the students that each one should write something and than the other will continue on it, it could be also creative and they will not forget the rules after seeing the many people's sentences.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ7-9ZpZzDY&feature
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xANd6Gyel_A&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdOKUeT0O-o&feature=related
these are my links related to wikis.it the videos, you can understand better what is wiki, how it is used in the education process. they also gives information about wikis and how it is applied in thye classroom, ı think they could be useful for you.
As technology is improving, our life becomes easier. Technology in the classrooms also develops which makes lessons enjoyable and easier not only for teachers but also for students. s are now using the newest materials to take their students attention to the lessons. Teachers should keep up with the new technological developments in order to have new and attention taking ways of teaching a lesson. As we can see from the video wiki is one of the new ways in the internet environment for the students. I think this is a good way for the students. They can do their group works in wiki without coming together which is a tiring thing. I personally don’t like this, because not everybody’s hours correspond which can sometimes cause problems. Through wiki they can edit new information, write stories, essays, share new information with their friends. I think e-mail is more time taking way, for that wiki can provide easiness to students. It is also helpful in posting links which are helpful to the students. Students can see what their friends wrote and can contribute to their writings. Via this they can learn new things from their friends.
ReplyDeleteHere is a link in which a teacher explains how she applies wiki to her classroom:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afU3EFKJYYo
As my friends mentioned above, in today’s world technology is developping every other day. Keeping up with them make our job as prospective teacher easier. Using technology in lessons help us interact with the students easily and make the lessons enjoyable and productive. For example, as wee see in the video of wiki, it is a way which uses internet to makthe English lessons more practical. To keep up with the students and intearction between them is difficylt for a teache, however it seems that by the usage of wiki these kinds of problems can be solved. It provides the teacher and the students create their own internet environment around the subject which is the topic or the project. By the help of it, they can also share their homeworks or ides without coming together and they have the chance to edit their sharings. Through this way the students and the teacher can easily contact with and give feedback each other.
ReplyDeleteIn my sample wikis there are many choice in the main page ad you can chose whatever you want according to your needs. I think it is very useful and practical especially for EFL/ESL classes.
The wiki link: http://wikisinefl.wikispaces.com/Wikis+in+EFL
I can say that it is useful and good tool.As I said my previos comments technology plays important role in our lives. Wikis can make lessons enjoyable and lovely for students. It can also increase both students' and teachers' motivation. Students love computers and Internet so this is another reason I think it useful and motivating.
ReplyDeleteUsing wikis in an EFL context has several advantages. First of all it facilitates collaborative learning. It also encourages creativity and make students create knowledge. Wikis are also important in that in an ordinary classroom environment the instructor is the one, who provides the knowledge for the students, but using wikis helps students participate actively in learning process. However, wikis have some disdvantages. First of all a wikipage is open to all and it may cause the information to become disorganized. More than that as everone has the access to wikipages the information may not be confidential and the webpage may be used for vandalism. In order not to let vandalism the site should be contolled very well. Therefore, the site should be managed appropriately. Also, everyone has to have access to internet all the time to check the information and add new items.
ReplyDeletehttp://practicalenglish.pbworks.com/ With the help of this site, one can learn about the practical English. In the site, the users can add information and make additions about the common usages and cmmon mistakes. The site is user frienly and it is easy to make changes on it. However, it doesn't have a good design I think. It may be more attractive. However, it can be said that the site is well protected because there aren't any unnecessary comments or information in the page.