Justine

I am loving using e learning and wiki's in the class!! Initially I introduced e -learning to the children by using the classroom computers and websites that supported our learning objectives at the time. For example, Starfall- this is a fantastic reading and language website and Topmarks is also a great site - this is mathmatics based. I incorporated these into our daily routines and taskboards to let the children have as much exposure to the computers as possible. The children are on the computers at least once or twice a day and are really excited about it, they are enjoying the feeling of ownership they have when they learn how to log on to the computer and find websites independently - I used the classroom experts to help with this which was a great idea (thank you David!).

The laptop trolley is fun....imagine 25 six year olds on their own computers, it sounds a bit like this “Mrs Cowan I’m stuck, Mrs Cowan I can’t do it, Mrs Cowan, Mrs Cowan…….” haha. We persisted though and now they are all able to log on and find their favourite websites independently! yay

When I introduced the wiki pages to the children they were a little bamboozled (nice word Wendy) at first, so Bryer and I decided to do buddy laptop sessions. This has been fantastic for my kids, with support from room 14 they set up their own wiki page with their own usernames and passwords and are now using them at home with their families. At the moment we are mainly using the wiki page to share what the children are doing in class with their friends and families at home, ie: I will record the children reading using the easi speak and put it on their reading page on wiki, or I record the children giving news and put it on their individual pages.

I would eventually like my class to be able to publish their stories on their wiki pages, this is something we will work towards in our buddy laptop sessions. So far, so good!! J