HASS

Reflection 3.3

Up until this point; I have spent the majority of my energy using Blogger and customising my blog page; whilst initially setting up weebly – without deep diving into its functionality.

As I have progressed this week by playing around with the functionality of weebly; I do sincerely enjoy the intuitive functionality of the ‘drag and drop’ feature; and the relative ease in which to embed videos, audio and picture; and indeed I am a fan of embedding weblinks within pictures; when an a visitor hovers their mouse over an image. Where your weebly site can be positioned for a range of purposes, additional functions such as this ensure a great range of functionality.

However, of course a downfall may be not allowing a multi author capacity (since it is a website after all); however there are ways around this, including the comments function for visitors (however this lacks in effectiveness, compared to say a blog). However in this context, I have enjoyed the multi-page ability of weebly, including the link to a blog – this increases its universality and function, particularly therefore in its application to an education setting.

By way of example, drawing on the SAMR model (across the civics and citizenship teaching area):

Substitution:

As a teacher, I could have a weebly page; and on this page there could be a range a multimedia videos and links to the Australian ‘Parliamentary Education Office’.

By viewing content, by way of video – such as ‘what is the Australian Constitution’, this is being substituted from reading in a text book.

Augmentation:

On the weebly page, at the end of the page on ‘referendums’ and the ‘Australian Constitution’ for example, as a teacher, I could then have a quiz, with various questions that students could answer. I could enable students to respond into the webpage through a comment, or perhaps on the blog section of my weebly page (this way they could contribute to each others responses; and this could be done in a variety of ways, such as each student answering one question, and the next responding). Equally, this type of work could be done in a ‘forum’ setting on the weebly page, so it is more interactive. This would also necessitate students drawing on higher order thinking, drawing on blooms taxonomy; including analysing the material just viewed etc.

Modification:

In exploring the constitution more fully, and as required as part of the curriculum, students would explore the process for referendum. A traditional approach may be, to research in a text book what have been the constitutional changes since 1901 and how many referendums have not achieved a constitutional change. Students could interview a cohort of the community around how this change affected their life or that of a cohort or community; such the 1967 Constitutional change enabling the Parliament to legislate regarding Aboriginal Australians. They could then present their findings in the blog section of weebly.

Redefinition:

Continuing in the context of referendum and the constitution; students as a class could decide on an issue that failed at referendum, such as Australia moving from a Constitutional Monarchy to a Republic. Again, research could centre around the debate for and against, and the utilisation around a range of digital tools on the weebly page. Such as, the class could set up one weebly page for a change to a Republic and a page that remains. Through this, we could then engage both formally with ‘entities’ that champion a republic (such as the Republican movement) and a constitution monarchy (such as Australians for a Constitutional Monarchy); and ask these entities to contribute to the weebly page (this way, really connecting socio-politically with this issue); indeed the Class could also engage their Federal Member of Parliament, and ask them to provide a 30 second video on their position; and this could be embedded on the Weebly.

Reflection 3.2

Although I have ‘struggled’ a little in my fluency of the technical functionality of creating and editing my wiki space; on review of the literature and multiple examples I can really see the relevance to the utilisation of a wiki. Critically, a wiki acts as a platform for learners to contribute and be collaborative on a live page. Importantly, a wiki is a ‘living’ page and can have multiple authors contribute to the page; although unfortunately a wiki does not have the capacity for multi authors to be updating the page at one time (this is one shortcoming of a wiki page).

When thinking of a wiki as a on-line ‘butcher’s paper, per the reading (https://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/book/view.php?id=418563&chapterid=29403) there are great advantages from a pedagogical perspective, to optimise student engagement in learning, however consideration must be given that unlike a blog a wiki is not ‘chronological’, but users add, update, delete and then contribute to material. (Of course it must be noted however, that there is a history of editing; but this is not necessarily ‘fit for purpose’ to measure distance travelled of a learner’s journey and contribution).

By way of example, drawing on the SAMR model through the utilisation of a wiki across my curriculum area of Humanities and Social Sciences (Civics and citizenship) ACHCK090 students are required to understand: “The key features and values of Australia’s system of government compared with at least ONE other system of government in the Asia region” (ACARA 2016):

Substitution:

The Teacher and students creating two lists: one with Australia, and one with (for example) Indonesia, on a white board with the teacher facilitating the learning and discussion based on what has been learnt;

Incorporating a wiki:

The class now substitute this for a wiki page, where they are to each individually add to their list. (this enhances what otherwise might be done on a physical whiteboard).

Augmentation:

Students then ‘augment’ this, by embedding direct webpage links to the ‘official’ Government webpages of both Australia and Indonesia that describe their key features ad values of their system of Government.

Additionally images could then be added, of the countries various parliaments; and also ‘you tube’ and other videos from Government sites that explain the countries system of Government from official Government webpages.

This would ‘augment; what otherwise would be read in a text book.

The transformative levels could include:

Modification:

On the wiki page, students could then be split into two groups, one group would concentrate on Australia, and another on Indonesia. Each group would set up a link to a new wiki page; and they would perhaps record a 30 second recording, explaining the key features of the countries system of government; form their new page of wiki.

Redefinition:

Through facilitation, the class would then interact through the wiki, with a school in Indonesia where they would share their recorded summaries of both Australia’s and Indonesia’s systems of Government; and invite these students to contribute to their reflections on Australia’s system of Government from an Indonesian students perfective, and also to provide feedback on our students understanding and summary of Indonesia’s system of Government.

Importantly, although through the redefinition phase would take a level of logistics to realise (as embedded within the wiki functionality; and other relevant ethical, safety and legal concerns), I feel the authenticity of this would be a profound learning experience; as well as critically working toward the cross-curriculum priority of Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia.