Reducing our Carbon Footprint

Reducing our Carbon FootprintReducing our Carbon Footprintby Janine by Janine HardimanHardimanEDIC706 Assignment 2EDIC706 Assignment 2

This study concentrates on the effectiveness of a wiki as a central place for online learning as well as the role of the teacher within online learning.

OverviewOverviewMy aim for this study was to investigate the effectiveness of using a

wiki as a centralised place for online learning as well as to experience the advantages and disadvantages of being an online teacher.

To do this I set up a private wiki based on learning surrounding reducing our carbon footprint and invited five students to participate.

The students were Year 5-6 and over the space of one week logged onto our wiki each day for 90 minutes completing tasks set and participating in online discussion with each other, myself and other children from around the world via the discussion forum found within the iearn website.

I initially met with the children to introduce the wiki and discuss expectations, however during the experience all communication between myself and the students was via the wiki and email. At the end of the week we got together to discuss learning, an appropriate action to share our learning, and how they found this style of learning.

What I hoped to achieveWhat I hoped to achieveMy Learning Objectives for the students included:

� To understand what it is meant by an eco-footprint

� To understand the effect their

eco-footprint has on themselves and

others from around the world

� To communicate their views about

eco-footprints with others

My reflection focus included:

� The effectiveness of discussions taking place between the children participating in this project and also with other children from around the world.

� The effectiveness of a wiki as a central place for children to use as part of a collaborative project.

The WikiThe WikiDonohue and Fox (2006) in their paper which was presented at

the 22nd annual conference on distance teaching and learning feel that there are factors to consider with the instructional design of an online learning site. They suggest designing a course that begins with students learning through readings and individual assignments and proceed to online discussions to construct their knowledge. Evans and Lockee (2008) believe in the process of breaking large bodies of subject matter into smaller and instructionally useful units.

With this in mind I focussed on five areas which affect our carbon footprint and provided readings and activities around these areas. The areas included home and school, what you eat, what you use, what you throw away and transport. Children read information given and were expected to discuss findings with each other as well as children from other parts of the world via the iearn website.

The wiki was made up of several pages all accessed from the home page. On the page marked syllabus a list of tasks for the week were given starting with an online survey which evaluates your actions with regards to your carbon footprint. From here there were five other pages which each contained information and links to learning about different aspects of reducing your carbon footprint. They included home and school, what you eat, what you use, what you throw away and transport. Under the page marked assignments was a rubric which was to be used at the conclusion of the tasks for the children to self assess their participation over the week.

To log on and view the wiki please use the link below. As this was a private wiki you will need to log on. Please use my log in details below.

http://diamondharbour.wetpaint.com/

Username: JanineHardiman

Password: pyram1d

Student Learning about Student Learning about EcoEco--footprintsfootprints

Objective 1: To understand what it is meant

by an eco-footprint

All children were able to orally explain exactly what a carbon footprint is and give numerous examples of activities that both increase and decrease their carbon footprint.

Objective 2: To understand the effect their eco-footprint has on themselves and others from around the world

Objective 3: To communicate their views about eco-footprints with others

These objectives were only beginning to be met. The children were able to describe the effect their eco footprint has on themselves but were only beginning to understand and communicate the effect it has on other people from around the world.

All children commented they needed to improve on communicating to other children from around the world about their carbon footprint as this was one area they had not persisted with preferring to communicate findings only with each other.

My LearningMy Learning

The children enjoyed the feeling of working independently but still felt like they were part of a group, helping each other when needed. This is shown in the posting below.

� Ed: that acid rain site is really confusing

� Sasha: i know what u mean with all those chemicals and sience talk. But it might b eaiser if u just call it bad stuff

� Sasha: i foud an eaiser place to understabd it u interested

The students tended to keep their postings short, posting one fact at a time initially, unless prompted to add more details. This is shown in the example below. Gradually throughout the week the students moved from reciting facts to posting comments which show more thinking and relating learning to their own lives.

Early posting

� Isaac: acid rain is exetremely dangerous to people with heart disease

� Emma: thats better

� Will: frogs are the most prone to pain from the acid in the water while snails are the least prone to it

� Will: Acid rain is caused by a chemical reaction that starts when compounds like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides get into the air

Later posting

� Isaac: using energy savers will save you big money and they last for about 8000 to 12000 hours but it holds mecury which is toxic tphumans which makes it minerly dangerous. my house would save itlest120 dollars

Children enjoyed sending compliments to each other and making friendship connections. One child spent more time on this than actually completing tasks set.

Compliment sent to me from Ed

� Hey, I think you're super!You are a ray of wiki sunshine. Here's why: This thing is really fun because u can talk about ur research without getting told off.

Compliment sent to me from Emma

� Love your profile!Awesome job decking out your profile - it's great to learn more about you.

The role of the teacherThe role of the teacherThis is an area which I found most difficult to master. The children reported enjoying

the feeling of independence from the teacher but also needed constant monitoring to keep on track. Finding the most appropriate balance between the two was difficult. As this was the first time the children had experienced this type of learning I feel they needed more input from the teacher but as they become more familiar with navigating the wiki and the novelty of confirming friendships and sending compliments wears off the teacher presence would not be needed as much.

I also struggled with how to make the teacher presence known to the children. Communication between myself and the students was via the wiki and emails. Each day I logged on responding to posts, encouraging and extending thinking. I also posted a daily group notice which the children would see when they logged on for the first time the following day. In future I think I will post podcasts and videos to try to further the feeling of a teacher being present alongside the students.

Monday 22 SeptemberWell done everyone for logging on and getting to know your way round our wiki. Some interesting comments have been posted today. Try to add lots of details about what you discover as other people are going to read your comments and reply to you. Try to teach the others what you have learned. Keep up the good work.Miss Hardiman

Student FeedbackStudent FeedbackP� Talking to people in different countries

� Being able to type rather than had write work

� Allowed to talk via the computer

� Vege trumps game

� Easy to find information, didn’t have to find it ourselves using a Google search

� Using difference sources of information

� Getting emails

M� Some information was confusing, too hard to understand

� It got boring posting threads

� Creating an email account, took too long

� Initially logging in

� Navigating the site, finding the right threads

� The iearn site was confusing, it was hard to find threads and the other people weren’t talking about the environment and weren’t children.

I� Sending compliments to each other

� Setting up profiles

� Talking to people over the internet

� Talking to strangers was weird, it felt like you weren’t talking to anyone and no one was listening.

� One part of my reflection was whether the students felt like they were part of a group within this learning activity or whether they felt they were learning individually. All students felt that they were working both individually and as a group for this activity. They enjoyed having the ability to contact each other for help and support if they didn’t understand a concept. They also enjoyed sharing learning with each other and replying to each other’s comments.

� Students also enjoyed the feeling of independence from the teacher. They felt secure in the knowledge that I was only a phone call or email away when they needed help and that I would read their comments and reply giving feedback.

ConclusionsConclusionsOne week was too short to really get into the swing of quality

discussions and I think with more practice the children would initiate and reply to more detailed and interesting discussions which would indeed cement knowledge learned and promote higher order thinking.

Using a wiki as a centralised place for discussions is an area I would like to develop further as a classroom teacher as I feel it has a definite place in the classroom. The children reported they enjoyed the feeling of independent learning while still working collaboratively with the teacher for a set purpose.

It is important to establish a feeling of having a teacher present during online discussions. Podcasts and videos could be an effective way of establishing this.

Overall I believe this was a positive experience for both myself and the children. Using the wiki as a centralised place for discussions was effective, however including other technologies such as podcasts and videos would extend this experience.

The role of the teacher is

vital in motivating students

and promoting valuable

discussions which will lead

to higher order thinking and

cement and extend learning.