This slideshow descibes a study completed which concentrates on the effectiveness of a wiki as a central place fo online learning as well as the role of the teacher within online learning.

1. Reducing our Carbon Footprint
by Janine Hardiman
EDIC706 Assignment 2
This study concentrates on the effectiveness of a wiki
as a central place for online learning as well as the
role of the teacher within online learning.

2. Overview
My aim for this study was to investigate the effectiveness of using a
wiki as a centralised place for online learning as well as to
experience the advantages and disadvantages of being an online
teacher.
To do this I set up a private wiki based on learning surrounding
reducing our carbon footprint and invited five students to
participate.
The students were Year 5-6 and over the space of one week logged
onto our wiki each day for 90 minutes completing tasks set and
participating in online discussion with each other, myself and other
children from around the world via the discussion forum found
within the iearn website.
I initially met with the children to introduce the wiki and discuss
expectations, however during the experience all communication
between myself and the students was via the wiki and email. At the
end of the week we got together to discuss learning, an appropriate
action to share our learning, and how they found this style of
learning.

3. What I hoped to achieve
My Learning Objectives for the students included:
To understand what it is meant by an eco-footprint
To understand the effect their
eco-footprint has on themselves and
others from around the world
To communicate their views about
eco-footprints with others
My reflection focus included:
The effectiveness of discussions taking place between the
children participating in this project and also with other
children from around the world.
The effectiveness of a wiki as a central place for children to
use as part of a collaborative project.

4. The Wiki
Donohue and Fox (2006) in their paper which was presented at
the 22nd annual conference on distance teaching and learning
feel that there are factors to consider with the instructional
design of an online learning site. They suggest designing a
course that begins with students learning through readings
and individual assignments and proceed to online discussions
to construct their knowledge. Evans and Lockee (2008)
believe in the process of breaking large bodies of subject
matter into smaller and instructionally useful units.
With this in mind I focussed on five areas which affect our
carbon footprint and provided readings and activities around
these areas. The areas included home and school, what you
eat, what you use, what you throw away and transport.
Children read information given and were expected to
discuss findings with each other as well as children from
other parts of the world via the iearn website.

5. The wiki was made up of several pages all
accessed from the home page. On the
page marked syllabus a list of tasks for
the week were given starting with an
online survey which evaluates your
actions with regards to your carbon
footprint. From here there were five
other pages which each contained
information and links to learning about
different aspects of reducing your
carbon footprint. They included home
and school, what you eat, what you use,
what you throw away and transport.
Under the page marked assignments
was a rubric which was to be used at
the conclusion of the tasks for the
children to self assess their participation
over the week.
To log on and view the wiki please use the
link below. As this was a private wiki
you will need to log on. Please use my
log in details below.
http://diamondharbour.wetpaint.com/
Username: JanineHardiman
Password: pyram1d

6. Student Learning about
Eco-footprints
Eco-
Objective 1:To understand what it is meant
by an eco-footprint
All children were able to orally explain exactly what a carbon footprint is and
give numerous examples of activities that both increase and decrease their
carbon footprint.
Objective 2:To understand the effect their eco-footprint has on themselves and
others from around the world
Objective 3:To communicate their views about eco-footprints with others
These objectives were only beginning to be met. The children were able to
describe the effect their eco footprint has on themselves but were only
beginning to understand and communicate the effect it has on other
people from around the world.
All children commented they needed to improve on communicating to other
children from around the world about their carbon footprint as this was
one area they had not persisted with preferring to communicate findings
only with each other.

7. My Learning
The children enjoyed the feeling of working independently
but still felt like they were part of a group, helping each
other when needed. This is shown in the posting below.
Ed: that acid rain site is really confusing
Sasha: i know what u mean with all those chemicals and
sience talk. But it might b eaiser if u just call it bad stuff
Sasha: i foud an eaiser place to understabd it u interested

8. The students tended to keep their postings short, posting one fact
at a time initially, unless prompted to add more details. This is
shown in the example below. Gradually throughout the week the
students moved from reciting facts to posting comments which
show more thinking and relating learning to their own lives.
Early posting
Isaac: acid rain is exetremely dangerous to people with heart disease
Emma: thats better
Will: frogs are the most prone to pain from the acid in the water while
snails are the least prone to it
Will: Acid rain is caused by a chemical reaction that starts when
compounds like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides get into the air
Later posting
Isaac: using energy savers will save you big money and they last for
about 8000 to 12000 hours but it holds mecury which is toxic tp
humans which makes it minerly dangerous. my house would save itlest
120 dollars

9. Children enjoyed sending compliments to each other and
making friendship connections. One child spent more time
on this than actually completing tasks set.
Compliment sent to me from Ed
Hey, I think you're super!
You are a ray of wiki sunshine. Here's why:This thing is really fun
because u can talk about ur research without getting told off.
Compliment sent to me from Emma
Love your profile!
Awesome job decking out your profile - it's great to learn more
about you.

10. The role of the teacher
This is an area which I found most difficult to master. The children reported enjoying
the feeling of independence from the teacher but also needed constant monitoring
to keep on track. Finding the most appropriate balance between the two was
difficult. As this was the first time the children had experienced this type of learning
I feel they needed more input from the teacher but as they become more familiar
with navigating the wiki and the novelty of confirming friendships and sending
compliments wears off the teacher presence would not be needed as much.
I also struggled with how to make the teacher presence known to the children.
Communication between myself and the students was via the wiki and emails. Each
day I logged on responding to posts, encouraging and extending thinking. I also
posted a daily group notice which the children would see when they logged on for
the first time the following day. In future I think I will post podcasts and videos to
try to further the feeling of a teacher being present alongside the students.
Monday 22 September
Well done everyone for logging on and getting to know your way round our wiki. Some
interesting comments have been posted today.Try to add lots of details about what you
discover as other people are going to read your comments and reply to you.Try to teach the
others what you have learned. Keep up the good work.
Miss Hardiman

11. Student Feedback
P
Talking to people in different countries
Being able to type rather than had write work
Allowed to talk via the computer
Vege trumps game
Easy to find information, didn’t have to find it ourselves using a Google search
Using difference sources of information
Getting emails
M
Some information was confusing, too hard to understand
It got boring posting threads
Creating an email account, took too long
Initially logging in
Navigating the site, finding the right threads
The iearn site was confusing, it was hard to find threads and the other people weren’t talking about the environment and weren’t
children.
I
Sending compliments to each other
Setting up profiles
Talking to people over the internet
Talking to strangers was weird, it felt like you weren’t talking to anyone and no one was listening.

12. One part of my reflection was whether the
students felt like they were part of a group within
this learning activity or whether they felt they
were learning individually. All students felt that
they were working both individually and as a
group for this activity. They enjoyed having the
ability to contact each other for help and support
if they didn’t understand a concept. They also
enjoyed sharing learning with each other and
replying to each other’s comments.
Students also enjoyed the feeling of independence
from the teacher. They felt secure in the
knowledge that I was only a phone call or email
away when they needed help and that I would
read their comments and reply giving feedback.

13. Conclusions
One week was too short to really get into the swing of quality
discussions and I think with more practice the children
would initiate and reply to more detailed and interesting
discussions which would indeed cement knowledge learned
and promote higher order thinking.
Using a wiki as a centralised place for discussions is an area I
would like to develop further as a classroom teacher as I feel
it has a definite place in the classroom. The children
reported they enjoyed the feeling of independent learning
while still working collaboratively with the teacher for a set
purpose.
It is important to establish a feeling of having a teacher present
during online discussions. Podcasts and videos could be an
effective way of establishing this.

14. Overall I believe this was a positive experience
for both myself and the children. Using the
wiki as a centralised place for discussions
was effective, however including other
technologies such as podcasts and videos
would extend this experience.
The role of the teacher is
vital in motivating students
and promoting valuable
discussions which will lead
to higher order thinking and
cement and extend learning.