Wallwisher (www.wallwisher.com) is a free online program enabling user to create a "wall" and add information (e.g. texts, images, videos, maps, slideshows, documents, links, etc.). It is an excellent tool for collaborative learning.
How to use Wallwisher?
- Here is the Wallwisher blog for tips and updates: http://blog.wallwisher.com/
- If you need any technical help, you can write to Wallwisher at hello@wallwisher.com
- Here is my Wallwisher cooperated with my classmates Johnathan, East and Karen http://wallwisher.com/wall/russellmadrid
Wallwisher in Language Teaching and Learning
- In a new class, it is difficult to remember all the students' or classmates' names in a short time. In order to promote interaction between teacher and students, students and students, ice-breaker activities are of great importance. Teachers can create a "wall" using Wallwisher and invite students to post their names and introduction onto the wall to present themselves in the respects of personal interest, favorite color, sports, movies, etc.
- Before a new unit, teachers can post background information of the lesson on the Wallwisher and send the link to their students for preparation. In this process, students can be invited to add their ideas on the topics as well. After finishing the lesson, teachers can post additional materials on the wall for learners with higher ability. Learners can be invited to post their questions on the lessons or language on the wall. Teachers and other learners can facilitate to answer questions.
- In the language classroom, teachers can create tasks for students, e.g. introducing hometown, experience of traveling, family, etc. and students work in pair or group to collect and organize their information with Wallwisher and use it to present their work to the class. With Wallwisher, students can add texts, photos, videos, slideshows, and websites to make their work more elaborated and dynamic.
- Teachers can utilize Wallwisher to collect feedback and comments from their students on their teaching and lessons. For example, talking about problems they have and what kinds of activities they would like to include in the classroom.
- Wallwisher can serve as a public notice board for the class out of the class. Students are encouraged to leave their messages and make comments in target language.
- Wallwisher can also be regarded as a sharing board for learners. They can post new vocabulary they learn from exercises or additional materials and share it with classmates. For example, a student post the new word "philosophy" and its meaning and usage on the wall. Other students can add more information of the new vocabulary, like in which context can we use "philosophy", discussion on the construction of the word (prefix, root and suffix) and other words with the same or similar prefix and suffix. Furthermore, students can introduce their favorite books, articles, music, operas, movies, etc and share their reviews with Wallwisher. In this respect, students' motivation and interest would be increased and they would be encouraged to autonomous learning.
- In some schools, teachers need to plan their lessons together with their colleges. With the application of Wallwisher, teachers can share their ideas of the lessons and useful resources for the lessons. Additionally, they can discuss questions and problems in the Wallwisher and provide solutions for the them. In this way, it would encourage collaborative wisdom of teaching and especially benefit the less experienced teachers.
Benefits of Wallwisher
- Good for collaborative learning and brainstorm in the language classroom.
- Pictures, videos, websites, slideshows, documents, maps, links, etc. are addable in the Wallwisher to elaborate ideas and opinions.
- Increase the engagement of students in the classroom.
- A good place to share useful resources in learning and teaching language.
- Easy operation and simple interface.
Limitations
- Not suitable for large class (more than 25 students). If so many students post their messages on the wall in the same time, the wall might become messy and important messages might be ignored. Meanwhile, it would become difficult to manage the messages.
- Time-consuming.
- When too many people are using the same wall in the same time, it would become quite difficult and slow to edit the messages and post pictures and videos due to the Internet speed.
- It is quite difficult the design the framework of your own wall. Sometimes you may not satisfy with the sizes and position of your messages. You can not enter precise numbers and edit sizes nd position of messages.
Further Reading
- Using Wallwisher in the Classroom
Very detailed. Well done. I think you can only use it in quite small classes really. 25 might be too many.
ReplyDeleteThank you Russell for the comments. I agree that 25 might be too many. In the class, students can be divided into several groups with 3 or 4 people in each group, which would be better for them to complete the task with Wallwisher and for teacher to evaluate students.
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