WEEK 10: ONLINE COLLABORATIVE WRITING

WEEK 10: ONLINE COLLABORATIVE WRITING  

Tuesday, March 21st, 2017

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This week I read about “Online Collaborative Writing Using Wikis” my initial reaction to this article was impression because I have never heard about wikis and I was really interested to know more about it.

Teachers, when trying to incorporate meaningful activities into the writing curriculum, use the internet to find an interactive alternative to motivate students to write, and research. Some of the software that allows people to connect, to communicate, and to collaborate online are blogs, wikis, and podcasts.

Something I want to remember from this article is the necessary elements for the writing pedagogy. The elements are: (1) a large amount of writing practice, (2) several varieties of texts and motivating tasks, (3) opportunities for revision and feedback, and (4) models of acceptable texts.

Moreover, wiki is a website where anyone can edit anything anytime they want. It is used for online collaborative writing activities. Teachers can use wiki to motive their students to work in collaborative online software by giving them easy task in which they can express their own ideas about any topic of interest (family, experiences or school life).

Something that surprised me in this article was that getting students to work in groups to express their ideas foster them to organize the ideas in a proficient way. Also, students obtain feedback from their classmate which is encouraged because they do not feel the pressure of being monitored by teachers. This also allows students to accept and deal with positive or negative criticisms. And, teachers, with or without knowledge about the use of wiki, can have free access to this website. By following the initial instructions, teachers can help their students to work with this tool.

What surprised me in this article was the fact that it is easy for teachers to be monitoring and supporting the process of their students’ writing as they have free access to this tool. To conclude using wikis writing projects is an effective tool to develop students’ writing skill. To conclude, wiki is a great too to help students to develop their writing skill and to teacher to be in touch with the new technology and renovate their teaching techniques.