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Hello my name is Jane McGuane (Student Number: 700086593) and I am currently a second year education student at Deakin University, Waurn Ponds Campus. As part of my Language and Literacy: The Early Years unit, I have been asked to create a multimodal artefact. I will use Wiki as a space and medium to demonstrate my understanding and knowledge about the effective teaching of literacy in the early years as explored in the unit via attendance at lectures and tutorials, reading of the set text being "//Developing Early Literacy - Assessment and Teaching//" by Susan Hill, as well as my own personal wider reading and research into particular areas of interest.

An article by Augar, Raitman and Zhou entitled 'Teaching and learning online with wiki' defines wiki's as 'fully editable websites; any user can read or add content to a wikisite' (2004, p. 1). It is for this reason that wiki's provide an excellent aid for collaboration and group work. Contributors can effectively be from anywhere and edit work at any time. The article goes on to describe the different types and applications of wikis. The writers acknowledge that while wiki's are freely available, reliable and relatively easy to use they are as yet not being widely implemented in education even though there are strong signs to suggest that using wiki's can enrich both teaching and learning.

This is the link to the website which provides some valuable information regarding wiki's and their applications: http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/perth04/procs/augar.html

Having had no prior experience in using Wikis I am looking forward to exploring and experimenting with the features available in this particular medium. I believe that technology is, and will continue to be an important learning tool for students and a valuable mode for students to become involved in new types of learning.