Korean Job Discussion Forums

[withnail]

http://pbworks.com/

Make a Wiki

It's never been easier to set up a simple "homepage" for your classes than by using pbworks (link above) - just select the "free" account for personal use and follow the simple instructions.

Here are the pros:

Communicate with all students at once on the front page with notices, changes to the schedule, announcements etc.


Have a questions for the teacher section where you can post your answers for all to see!


Save the trees!: Why photocopy something 180 times for your classes when you can instead make something ONCE and YOUR STUDENTS can be required to print out documents for themselves and bring them to class as part of the class participation mark in their grade? With a wiki - you can create simple named folders and upload documents to them on your new homepage both for general student reference or to be brought to class.

Supplementary material: uploading extra material and links to useful sites. Good choices of extra materials here can prevent a lot of time-consuming individual questions later. Also you can put up optional assignments and see which of your students want high grades. Once they become familiar with the homepage, no student has the excuse of lacking anything he/she needs to get a good grade in your class.


You can put your schedule up there so students can see when you are available and when not...

You can use the homepage for every piece of paper you'd otherwise hand out of any kind. Before if students lost materials, they'd have to bother you - now, they don't need to come to you for a replacement - they can get it themselves.

Wikis are soooooo useful for avoiding repeating the same information again and again!
Examples here might be the rules of the class/information about grading & assignments etc / key points of a lecture (so as to avoid lecturing!!!)

Basically anything to help you CUT DOWN ON TEACHER TALK TIME!!!

You don't have to keep answering the same old questions -

now you can say "read the info on our homepage!"

You can create a page with this week's most common errors which has to be thought about and the errors solved before coming to the next class!

There may be a short text or video you'd like them to see to kickstart your next lesson - you can put these/links to these on your homepage!

You can also put up small group discussion questions to be considered before class...

You can [b]store a folder of filler materials/powerpoints etc [/b] for a rainy day...so if your room has a big tv linked to your computer, then you'll never be stuck for good and quickly accessible material of your own.


The key point with uni freshman sts in particular is that they must be told in no uncertain terms that interaction with the wiki class homepage is a crucial part of the grading and repeat this again and again in the initial weeks.

"You didn't check our homepage? Oh dear - you're throwing away your class participation points!"

"You didn't bring the worksheet from the homepage? - Oh dear - you'll have to share with someone else! You are losing points from your grade"


Soon they will get the message and your job will become much easier!

If you have several classes all following the same programme, the one site will cover all classes! When the semester is over, most of the donkey work has been done! It's plain sailing thereafter for new groups in the next semester with minimal revision to the site. Just take care to give the website a general title so the one site can be used again and again.

Each student can be given their own private password and login to make comments and some teachers even score their students by how much each student engaged with the homepage in the semester - under the auspices of "class participation". Plenty of students don't bother too much at first but, hey, these can have no complaints if they don't get an A+ for your course!

A wiki can help you discriminate between students who are really up for a good grade and those who don't really care.

I really recommend this - such a timesaver and eco friendly!


Finally, anything we can do to encourage autonomous learning to make the students engage with English between lessons is very important.

Wikis rock...For a university English teacher, until you get yours up and running, you won't realise how much time they can save!! I guarantee once you get started, you'll never go back to endless photocopying and endless repeating of key information!!!

[hajima 99]

Great suggestions! Another perhaps similar program to check out, completely free, and designed by teachers for teachers is Moodle ( http://moodle.org/ ). There's a short introductory video in the "about" section, and various demonstration sites to help get you comfortable with the format. Moodle is the program I was encouraged to implement by the Board of Education in classes I taught back home.

'Google' also offers a free site/wiki option: http://www.google.com/sites/help/intl/en/overview.html

[withnail]

Another good alternative!

[Lunar Groove Gardener]

Great tool!
Thanks a lot.

[emetib]

This is awesome. You gave me some great ideas. Thanks!!!!

[withnail]

No probs. Rock on my friends!

[ddeubel]

Yes, a wiki would do fine and I highly recommend PB Works over wikispaces. Good choice.

However, wiki's are a little "static" and there are more social options out there where learners can chat, email, share videos/music etc... You can even monitor and grade their use of the site electronically, make quizzes right there etc...

I recommend in this vein (after trying out many sites) http://edu20.org You will find it easy to set up, invite students and with different levels of privacy.

hajima,

Are you sure you set up the moodle yourself or was it already installed by the board of Ed? A moodle is another cookie altogether and you need to have your own server. Nor is it easy to set up on the server and format/design. Moodle, like Blackboard, Elgg or many other content management systems, really deserve a full time tech person and work well for a large group of teachers to use (each with separate courses/areas).

DD
http://eflclassroom.com

[scorpiocandy]

This is a great idea. I've stopped using a book for my students and have spent hours copying and printing a weekly set of notes.

I have only one problem though in that right now I work in the Language Institute of the University and so they're not really concerned about grades and deduction of points.
So they have no motivation to check their homepage.

However for my next students I'll use this idea for sure.

Thanks!

[Chambertin]

[hajima 99]

[withnail]

[lifeinkorea]

[ddeubel]

[withnail]

Again folks, I'd go with pbworks instead of wikispaces as the place to make your wiki. With wikispaces you can't even change the default green colour without upgrading.

www.pbworks.com

[nomad-ish]

i'd like to do something like this at my public school. is there a website anyone would recommend for this? i want the kids to be able to communicate on message boards, but i don't want them to be able to change anything (like on a wiki).