WIKISPACES CLASSROOM – A COLLABORATIVE E-LEARNING PLATFORM FOR THE TEACHING OF PHYSICS
WIKISPACES CLASSROOM – A COLLABORATIVE E-LEARNING PLATFORM FOR THE TEACHING OF PHYSICS

Summary/Abstract: As a physics teacher, I constantly strive to integrate in my classes the modern concept of virtual teaching. Therefore, I seek to offer my students web tools that are designed to enhance their comprehension on the subjects being taught and to extend their learning abilities. A powerful tool which can perform this role is Wikispaces Classroom, an online platform designed to transcend the conventional boundaries of teacher-student interaction in class. To be more precise, a wiki is a website where both students and teachers can post textual, visual or audio materials which can help with the learning process. In this article I will show how I have managed a Wikispaces Classroom to substantially improve my teaching of physics. I gave every student the opportunity to design his own ”online portofolio”, consisting in assignments (PowerPoint presentations, Excel worksheets for data analysis, projects etc.) and to post it on a personalized webpage within the wikisite. Moreover, in order to assist the students with their revision, I posted many helpful materials which summarized the main ideas of the lessons. The website also includes a range of tests that the students can take in order to preassess their knowledge before an actual test is given in class. Nevertheles, they are able to access their updated grades as the school semester progresses and to improve their performances accordingly.

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