Profile Wiki

As I am a ‘digital immigrant’ (Prensky, 2001), I have learnt that the profile wiki is a valuable tool in getting to know other people that are studying to be a teacher, just like myself. Browsing through other people’s profiles allowed me to get to know other student teachers and find something I have in common with other people. This also enabled me to get a better understanding of what learning styles people have, as those that mentioned they enjoyed playing sports are more likely to be an active learner, which has much in common with the kinaesthetic learner (Felder, 1995). This activity takes up a large amount of time, so I did not read all of the profile wikis.

Students can use the computer as a way of learning and getting to know each other. By asking students to set up a profile wiki, will also enable me as a teacher to get a better understanding of their interests and could then teach some of my classes with elements of the things the students enjoy doing. Some students will be ‘digital immigrants’ while others will be ‘digital natives’ (Prensky, 2001), so a basic activity like this, would be a good way to teach ‘digital immigrants’ about ICT.

Learning involves associations established through contiguity and repetition, (Mergel, 1998) in saying this, the profile wiki activity could have an element of cognitivism. Cognitivism is based on the thought processes behind behaviour (Schuman, 1996). If the profile wiki is updated a few times in a week and everyone spent the time browsing through all the profile wikis, students can think about where others in their class have come from and may find someone they did not know, for example speaks Italian just like themselves.

Behaviourism is the study of overt behaviours that can be observed and measured (Good, Brophy, 1990). The profile wiki activity does not have elements of behaviourism, as it using information about yourself, not changing your behaviour as you are not learning anything new about yourself. Constructivism builds upon behaviourism and cognitivism in the sense that it accepts multiple perspectives and maintains that learning is a personal interpretation of the world (Mergel, 1998).

By having the students learn how to do a profile wiki, students are maintaining connections which is needed to facilitate continual learning (Siemens, 2004). Students can work in groups to help each other create a profile wiki.

Student diversity in schools is very broad, with students coming from different cultural backgrounds, low socio-economic environments or someone coming from an environment where you get every new technological device that comes on the market. By doing the profile wiki students will learn about everyone’s background and what they enjoy doing and the more computer literate students may help those who are computer illiterate to help them create a profile wiki.

The design of this e-learning activity supports learning in that different kinds of experiences lead to different brain structures according to Dr. Bruce D. Perry of Baylor College of Medicine (Prensky, 2001). By doing an activity on the computer, students will be engaged, as most students enjoy learning by the use of different activities involving technology.

References

Felder, R.M. (1995) Learning and Teaching Styles in Foreign and Second Language Education, Foreign Language Annals, 28, No. 1, pp. 21–31

Good, T. L., Brophy, J. E. (1990). Educational psychology: A realistic approach. (4th ed.).White Plains, NY: Longman

Mergel, B.(1998) Instructional Design and Learning Theory. Available: http://www.usask.ca/education/coursework/802papers/mergel/brenda.htm

Prensky, M. (2001) Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, On the Horizon (MCB University Press, Vol. 9 No. 5.

Siemens, G.(2004) Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age

Schuman, L. (1996). Perspectives on instruction. [On-line]. Available: http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec540/Perspectives/Perspectives.html