Melisa+Di+Fabio

One of my greatest achievements this year as part of the PLP Netbook Trial Program has been developing a wikispace for the whole school. Whilst the project began in my classroom earlier with a focus of increasing student engagement and learning, it was quickly taken on board by the whole school and became a useful tool to both teachers and students. Teachers are able to use the wikispace in the classes to organise homework, set class projects, communicate with parents, and share student work. Similarly, students are able to use the wikispace to access calendars and school resources, share their work (eg. stories, presentations), reflect on their learning and communicate with teachers and friends.

Please visit: http://www.grade5-6dmps.wikispaces.com

Welcome to Meadows Primary School Welcome to our Wikispace!

Visit our classrooms, find out what's happening in our school, check out the lastest sports reports or view some of the students' work!

The students have enjoyed setting up the school wikispace and as a result were very excited and enthusiastic about communicating with one another outside of school hours. As part of the wikispace, students have been able to follow up on class activities, share ideas, participate in discussions around key learning areas (literacy, numeracy etc) as well as ask questions and clarify their understandings when I am online (after school hours). Due to student participation and enthusiasm the project quickly grew and inspired another teacher from the 5/6 unit to also develop a wikispace for her class. Please see: [|http://www.grade5-6cmps.wikispaces.com]

As a 5/6 unit, we have incorporate the student netbooks into our learning program to encourage students to communicate more closely with one another in a ‘virtual’ class environment both within class hours and outside class hours. An example of the growth in student engagement can be demonstrated by the number of times students have used the wikispace (over the last few months) and the discussions that have taken place from teacher to student and student to student. E.g. See 2009 statistics (views & edits) below: 





Student comments about the wikispace: // I like the wikispace because I like the links, I don’t need to type in the website, I just need to click on it and it will come up. Miss Di Fabio did a very good job making the wikispace, I enjoy it, like chatting with my friends, and others. The wikispace is just a site where teachers and students can go and hang around. It is fun! (Kehlya – Grade 5) //

// The thing that I like about the wikispace is that I get to decorate my own page and we get to chat to our friends and we all have fun. The teacher gives us homework online. We also get to talk to our teacher Miss.Di.Fabio too. I would like to thank Miss.Di.Fabio for doing this for all of us. (Anamaria- Grade 5) //

As a teacher one of the greatest successes the wikispace has it has brought to my class has been a natural flow of learning from the school to the home. It has also increased and promoted a stronger the interaction between the students, the parents and myself the teacher.

Students in the 5/6 unit are now seen as ‘experts’ and are working with both teachers and students in buddy grades to disseminate their knowledge. Over the past few weeks students in my class have been working closely with their Grade 1-2 buddies to help them set up a class blog: Please visit [|http://www.meadowsps12h.blogspot.com]. Similarly, the 5/6 students have also worked with student in the grade 3/4 unit to show them how around the wikispace and show them how to use programs such as Superclubs Plus which is linked to the wikispace. Class blog 5/6 students set up with 1/2 students at Meadows Primary School **Meadows12H **

[|hi from Ava]
Hi 1/2 H

Hello I'm Ava I go to Oak Park Primary, I am 8 and in grade 3 I have a Wii,PS 3 and a DS.

I always play on my trampoline, and I going to get a pool.

from Ava Posted by Ms Hainslin    at [|12:05 AM]  [|0 comments]    

[|Chelsea]
hi my name is // chelsea // I am 7 years old I like playing my DS and lots of others my friends names are Hope, Lena ,  , Joana mae and Maryam Posted by Meadows12H    at [|8:55 PM]  [|0 comments]

[|Our first blog]
Welcome 5/6D. Thank-you for helping us set up our class blog. Posted by Meadows12H  <span style="color: #999999; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 9.5pt; letter-spacing: 1.2pt; text-transform: uppercase;">  <span style="color: #999999; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 9.5pt; letter-spacing: 1.2pt; text-transform: uppercase;">at [|6:09 PM]  <span style="color: #999999; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 9.5pt; letter-spacing: 1.2pt; text-transform: uppercase;">[|0 comments]  <span style="color: #999999; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 9.5pt; letter-spacing: 1.2pt; text-transform: uppercase;">  <span style="color: #999999; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 9.5pt; letter-spacing: 1.2pt; text-transform: uppercase;">

<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">One of our biggest challenges as part of this project has been ensuring that all netbooks were working and that students had access to the Internet outside school hours. Hence, whilst all students have been participating and were part of a virtual environment as part of this program not all students can or could get on. Another challenge that we have stumbled on as a class has been cyber bullying. Whilst the excitement of the wikispace was seen by most students as a privilege and unique opportunity to share school work with parents and friends, it was soon abused by a student who deleted the school page. As a result of this structures had to be quickly put in place to protect the rights of all students and to stop the activity from manifesting throughout the student body.