Spanish teacher and her Wiki

Below are the replies  I received from a teacher who had set up a Wiki in Spain for her students.  I had asked her about her experiences, challenges and joys.

December 30^th 2012

I'd be glad to help. I find your research very interesting and useful. I don't know about Australia but here in Spain teachers are still very reluctant to use ICTs in class and don't find it useful for students. They still focus on the boring textbook.
I discovered the wikis on a course on ICT's for teachers. This is my first wiki.

My wiki started last year with a group of students (15 years old). They were bad students, not only in English but also in behaviour and I thought that maybe this would motivate them. At first it was very difficult to focus them on writing the wiki as they kept on logging on facebook or checking out their emails.

But then they started to work on the wiki and begged me to keep going to the computer room. I asked them to write the grammar parts and vocabulary of the units (which are not present in the wiki you can see now as I've hidden these pages). Their behaviour improved and so did their grades.

I had to re-write some passages correcting spelling and grammar mistakes and added some pictures.

This year it's a little bit different. I teach adults who cannot attend classes everyday so I'm writing the wiki myself so they can follow the classes. They've told me that they find it very useful because this way they can follow the classes and answer their doubts. If you want, I can ask them to write their opinion on the wiki but as you can see on "DEBATE" their written English is poor. Maybe I could add a debate page where they could write their opinions.

Let me know if you need any more help. I'll be glad to answer all your questions.

Jan 3rd 2013

My name is Paula Crespo Martínez and I am teaching at IES Enrique Tierno Galván in Parla (Madrid). I am an English Teacher. (IES Enrique Tierno Galván. Avda Juan Carlos I, 12. Parla 28981 (Madrid) Tlf.: 916 981 111)

Step by step!

How did you find the collaboration between your students? Was it obvious, not obvious?

I found that two people cannot edit the same page at the same time. So to solve this, I had them work in pairs or groups of 3-4 and while one group wrote the grammar part, other looked for grammar exercises or wrote their own sentences, others wrote the vocabulary and so on. Then, we switched tasks and have ones correct the grammar or change or add something, others write sentences with the vocabulary words...

Did you have to set out expectations regarding collaboration or how many times they contributed to the wiki?

Not much really, it was my first time working with wikis so it was like an experiment. They hadn't worked in the computer room before so it was new for both the students and me. I asked them to be participative and told them that if they worked on the wiki we could visit the computer room regularly. To be honest, I also told them that we'd visit the computer room if they behaved properly in class, so visiting the computer room was like a prize for them.

Were there any things you did in the classroom prior to starting the wiki to get the students used to collaborating face-to-face before expecting them to collaborate online?

I'm not sure if this answers your question (if it doesn't, let me know). In class I often made them work in pairs or in small groups to do the exercises because this way, they helped each other and solve each other's doubts (collaborative learning). We also did some contests and they needed to work in group. So in the computer room it was more or less the same (once I got them to work ;-) )

Did some students take the lead and others sit back? How equal were the contributions?

It was difficult to have them work equally as some students tried to have their partner do all the hard work, but more or less they worked in pairs. For example one typed and then both of them decided what to type. The contributions were pretty equal as they worked in class and not at home. But I had to keep an eye on them all the time.

Was it enough to communicate though the wiki or did they still need other ways to communicate, such as talking face-to-face, Facebook, or ordinary emails?
We still communicated in class. The wiki was to reflect what was taught in class so they could have their own "textbook" written by students for students and with all the vocabulary of each unit in one page. (The textbook had a short list of vocabulary and they had to expand it). I taught the grammar in class (sometimes even with the help of the Interactive Digital Whiteboard!) and followed the textbook. Once we finished the unit we went to the computer lab to write the wiki.

Yes, I think the teacher's preparation is an important part, but I think it's more important that the teacher has the courage to work them in class. I hadn't use wikis before I did this one. When you learn about ICTs is when you apply them in class with your students because it is only this way when you get to know which works better with a particular group of students. So that's why I think that the teachers' attitude is more important than the training. If you learn about blogs, wikis, webquests, treasure hunts and so on, but then you don't use them in class, what's the point?

The problem is often that teachers see the text book as the safe way and more comfortable. It's true, I couldn't imagine that having 20 teenagers in the computer room was going to be so tiring! They are asking things all the time, you have to solve the problems they may face and also be sure that they focus on what you've asked.

What surprised me was that eventhough they were teenagers and were supposed to be "digital natives" they had little idea of how to use search engines correctly (for example using " " ), give format to a word document or even create a wikispaces account. My idea was to get them to use glogster as well but to do so I would have needed lots of hours to teach them how to use it. So I needed to teach them how to use the wiki and edit it and give them some tips to use google. They even often forgot to hit the save button! So they are not as digital natives as we think...

It didn't even cross my mind that I had to ask for permission. Eventhough the wiki is a public space the name of the authors or any other personal data is not revealed. I forbade them to post their photos because I do know that for posting images of minors I need to get their parents' permission.

If yoy still have doubts about these questions, let me know and I'll try to answer them better.

I'll be glad to answer (or at least try) all your questions.

Good luck