Learning Management Systems (LMSs) allow teachers to manage learning activities efficiently and effectively. Teachers can use an LMS to upload course materials, organize online discussions, share files, and collect assignments online. In 2002, the Hong Kong Institute of Education, the largest teacher education provider in Hong Kong, started to employ the popular Blackboard online learning platform. The Institute attempted various ways to explore the delivery of traditional academic courses via this online learning platform. The primary aim of using Blackboard is to provide in-service teachers with a new way to facilitate their learning. In addition to LMSs, we are aware that our students are able to collaborate, create, and share new information on the Web through various Web 2.0 tools (such as social bookmarking systems, blogs, wikis, social networks, video sharing platforms, etc.). However, how can these Web 2.0 tools be used alongside LMSs to facilitate the implementation of e-learning in teacher education courses? This study aims to investigate the synergistic effects of integrating LMSs and free wikis in teacher education courses. First, we discuss the pros and cons of using LMS and wiki-based learning activities from a user's perspective. Secondly, we discuss the approach for building our own learning model that integrates both online tools in course delivery.
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This article reports the results of an attempt to integrate a collaborative technology, a wiki, into learning within a course in a teacher education program based on social constructivist learning theory. The current study aimed to explore student-teacher acceptance of the proposed pedagogy and to identify specific learning style preferences that might be favourable to accepting the proposed pedagogy. A total of 56 student teachers studying a General Education (GE) course in a teacher education institute in Hong Kong participated in the study. They completed a number of collaborative tasks using a wiki during the learning process, and were then invited to complete a questionnaire designed to solicit their perception on the usefulness of wikis and their attitudes towards using a wiki, and 39 of them also returned a learning styles inventory which was used to identify the learning styles profile of the student-teacher samples. The findings reveal favourable perceptions of the use of a wiki as a collaborative learning tool in the course. Qualitative data collected from open-ended questions also reflects similar favourable results. Active learners were also found to be significantly different from reflective learners in accepting the wiki as a learning tool.
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Many teachers of English as a second language (ESL) have begun to perceive the place of collaborative writing in the teaching of writing. With the development of Internet-based resources such as blogs and forums, learners have begun to adapt to online writing and to use tools that supports such activity. Teachers are beginning to perceive the value of this and consequently such resources have begun to be incorporated into the teaching of ESL writing by getting students - as yet, mainly on an individual basis - to write e-mails, express their ideas on forums, and create web pages. An extension to these individual writing activities involves the incorporation of Internet resources into cooperative writing, where more than one learner produces a text jointly. The current study explores these issues in the use of wikis, and how wikis may be utilised in a group writing task. The paper describes a case study in a Hong Kong postsecondary institute where over the course of a month, groups of learners produced a report based on survey data they had collected. The outcome of the project was generally successful - in that groups produced more cogent documents than had previous groups who had worked in a pen-and-paper format. Nonetheless, a number of issues concerning the running of the project arose that need to be addressed for collaborative writing with wikis to be successfully implemented. While the study took place in a post-secondary institute, the use of wikis holds good across secondary level forms, with implications for their use at different levels discussed and elaborated.
很多教授英語為第二語言的教師漸漸認識協作式寫作在寫作教學中的作用。隨著互聯網上的資源發展，例如討論區及網路日誌，學習者開始適應網上寫作，及使用相關的支援工具。教師看到網上協作寫作的價值，逐漸將這些資源融合於英語寫作教學，籍此推動學生 (主要以個人方式) 寫電郵、在討論區發表意見及創作網頁。這種個人寫作活動的延展需要將網上資源融合於協作式寫作，即多名學習者合力創作一篇文章。是項研究探討使用維基於寫作教學，及如何把維基運用在小組寫作。這篇文章描述了在香港一所專上學院的個案。個案中幾個學生小組在一個月內以他們在調查所得的數據寫報告，結果令人滿意，這些小組比以往那些使用紙筆式寫作的小組創作的報告更佳。然而要成功地將維基運用在協作式寫作，我們有需要解決協作寫作所產生的問題。是項研究雖然探討專上學生運用維基寫作，然而在中學各級應用維基的情況也是良好的。本研究亦討論不同英語程度學生應用維基於寫作的效果