My Digital Project

Here is the link to my digital project: http://gradefivenutrition.wikispaces.com/.

I designed a wiki for my grade five health unit about nutrition. This wiki includes course assessments, assignments, homework, a participant directory, student games and resources, and teacher resources. Since I am currently on maternity leave this is a "mock"course wiki that I plan to use when I return to teaching next year.

I have highlighted some of my successes and failures while designing this wiki in previous blog entries (specifically those titled My Adventures in Technology).

I had no previous experience designing a wiki so every item I added to it symbolized new learning. I learned how to design a variety of pages and add links to other pages on the wiki or to outside websites. I learned how to post pictures and format text.

I posted an assessment table on the wiki so that students and their parents could see how the marks were allotted. I reviewed a paper copy of a nutrition unit that I had previously taught and found ways that I could incorporate technology into my lessons. I posted two assignments that students could complete using on-line resources and then they could document their knowledge on their personal blogs. I made a demo blog to demonstrate how to complete the assignments. I posted some examples of homework that students were asked to complete. I also made a sample directory were students could write a mini-biography about themselves. I researched on-line to find student and teacher resources that I could link to my wiki. I learned about the Discovery Education website that had a wealth of information that I will use across all subject areas.
The wiki will be an excellent addition to my nutrition unit because it gives the students opportunity to use technology and it allows them and their parents to access course information on-line.

There were several road blocks I encountered while completing this wiki. My inexperience using a wiki, and with technology in general, made the process of designing it a long one. I made many mistakes along the way but I persevered and figured out how to accomplish what I had set out to do. I spent many hours designing a fairly simplistic wiki. My wiki is not sophisticated, but nevertheless, it is an accomplishment that I am proud of.

Overall designing this wiki was a positive experience. I learned a new skill that will make my instruction more effective. The on-line tool wikispaces is very user friendly and I will design more course wikis in the future.