Wiki's+and+Blogs

Wiki's and Blogs are great vechicles to foster broad discussions within the class and they provide the avenue for students to take the responsibility for the independent research of a topic which they will share with a broader audience.

I have created several Wiki's with my year 8 classes and have been intrigued by how the student focus has been quite different with each group. Using the Wiki format has meant the class has been exposed to viewing and discussing a much broader range of art forms, themes and techniques than what would have occurred with the more traditional class 'research' project. Student interests have also provided the springboard for me to broaden students understanding of artists, styles or other issues related to student topics presented.

I like the way that Wiki's can be built up over a period of time and also provide a forum for students to add comments about what another student is doing or ask questions to gain more knowledge about something.

As I have become more more familiar with the creation of these sites, how I have used them with students has evolved and developed. One of the focuses on presenting material on the Web is to get students to understand **'copyright issues'** and seek permission to use material or use hypelinks to sites. This requirement is also clearly expressed in the assessment rubric.



As the moderator of the site, I can block students if their behaviour is inapporpriate and I can also easily track students use of the site and provide feedback when required.

Here are the Wiki's and Blogs I have developed:

http://yr8art09-fhs.wikispaces.com/

http://yr8artroom-fhs.wikispaces.com/

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