I. WHO WE ARE
We are three teachers from three countries: Alan from Slovenia, Arzu from Turkey and Lucy from Poland. We had to do a task about being an embalmer in Ancient Egypt. We were expected to convince a boy named Jamie to become an embalmer’s apprentice and come up with a wiki presentantion, implementing all the media sources we had learnt to use.
II. ASPECTS WE KEPT IN MIND WHILE PREPARING A PRESENTATION
Before we started our presentation, we knew it would be important to decide on the layout/the design as well as the content. First, we discussed the structure and then filled in the tables with relevant information and edited it. We wanted to make sure the structure would be clear, logical and simple for the readers. We had difficulty selecting suitable information from a wide variety of reliable sources but we shared the responsibilities and each of us focused on a different aspect and of our presentation; for example, the definition of an embalmer, the required accessories, the process of embalming and the reasons why Jamie should apply for the apprenticehip.
While working collaboratively, we tried to keep the audience constantly in mind to make our presentation suitable, brief, concise and interesting.For that purpose, we employed an interactive game and a video taken from youTube which showed the embalming process in a funny way.
We also included the pictures of some of the objects used by professional embalmers in Ancient Egypt. 
A good suggestion was to exploit the wordle technique to begin with in order to activate the audience and elicit the explanation of the embalmer’s job.
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The wordle from our presentation.
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Finally, we added a power point presentation which illustrated the reasons why the embalmer’s job was worth considering. In the end, we tried to critically evaluate our presentation and checked its format, the accuracy of the text and the logical order of information.
III. THE BENEFITS OF WIKIS
Taking everything into consideration, wikis proved highly applicable in the ELT classroom for any purpose and any age group. We believe using wikis promotes and fosters collaborative work and the development of social skills and increases motivation for learning (among teacher and students alike). Furthermore, exploiting wikis develops learners' peer evaluation skills, critical thinking and learning strategies (i.e. reading for general understanding or specific information, identifying topic sentences in texts, summarising, paraphrasing, commenting, analysing and evaluating). Last but not least, wikies enable students to access their “classroom” from home and thus acquaire language also outside school.
Dear Alan, Arzu and Lucy,
ReplyDeleteDefinitely to Wiki! Thank you for your post and the ideas you presented. I believe the boy named Jamie will be conviced.
It's great to think about both content and design before you start your work. It was a good idea to share responsibilities, it shows how good your teamwork skills are.
I liked the idea of using wordle, from my own experience I know that students like wordles.
It is clearly seen from your report that Wikis contribute a lot to collaboration and develop social skills. You have deeply understood the essence of using wikis in the ELT classroom.
Good job! Thank you again for sharing!
Best regards,
Nina