WIKI - How To Be An Effective Teacher

This is my Wiki where I hope to develop a list of the very special requirements it takes to be an Effective Teacher. I hope that you can add to what I have already listed. This website gives some good information about wikis and their use in education.
http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/cmis/eval/curriculum/ict/wikis/#value

My how to be an effective teacher wiki is my first ever interaction with a wiki. I haven't even used Wikipedia before, and had no idea it was even what could be classically defined as a wiki.

Wikis are a useful teaching tool because many students find that their learning is most effective when they are actively involved in the construction of their knowledge. Wikis encourage group social interaction and collaboration and support 'timely' communication.

Kearsley and Shneiderman (1999) discuss in their article Engagement Theory : A Framework for technology-based teaching and learning, very interesting reasons for using technology in your lessons. The authors propose that students who are meaningfully engaged in learning activities through interaction with others and performing tasks that they see as being worthwhile are more engaged, therefore more actively learning than other students who are less engaged or not using such technology. By setting tasks that are meaningful and have a usable outcome, the teacher is able to motivate the student to participate in the task and therefore possibly achieving a positive outcome such as creating, problem-solving, reasoning, decision-making and evaluation (all higher learning outcomes).

Wikis could be seen as a useful tool because they allow the user (in our case the student) to freely create and edit a web based list/creation which allows others to add/amend their ideas to your original thought. Schools with grades from Prep-12 are taking advantage of the opportunities for 'collaborative construction' that wikis provide. As a teachers you could get your students to use wikis to:

• create in online text for your classroom.
• creating a choose your own adventure
• publish information about a topic they are researching
• create an online presence for their school/class
• create digital portfolios for students and teachers
• encourage collaboration
  

Wikis are used to promote student engagement. Engagement theory is based on "the idea of creating successful collaborative teams that work on ambitious projects that are meaningful to someone outside the classroom" (Relate-Create-Donate). (Kearsley & Shneiderman, 1999)

So what do Kearsley and Scheirderman mean by Relate-Create-Donate?

Relate means interacting with others to achieve an outcome. This requires good communication, planning, management and collaboration skills. Very useful skills for anyone to have. Working with others also exposes the student to people with different backgrounds, makes them interact with people they wouldn't normally mix with, therefore experiencing new views and ways of looking at things.

Create, allows the student to work on something they see as being worthwhile, it serves a purpose. They are given a sense of control over their learning and therefore makes learning a creative, purposeful activity. They have to problem solve, focus their effort on a specific outcome and work together for a common purpose.

Donate, means that their learning and the time spent on the task, has a productive outcome. The task or learning is then, seem by the student as being meaningful which increases their levels of motivation and satisfaction.

References:
Kearsley, G. and Shneiderman, B. (1999) Engagement Theory:

A framework for technology-based teaching and learning
http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm