Wallwisher

I feel the Wallwisher program has many strengths, as it is a free program available to any student with internet access. It is great for quick, group discussions, as students can post their feelings and have them appear almost instantly. They not only can see what they post, but what their group members post as well, and therefore gain a better understanding about a topic. Another strength is that it is simple to use and the design is easy to follow and read.

I believe there are some weaknesses to Wallwisher. The biggest issue I see with it is teachers misusing it. For instance, I feel the best use is for quick, group discussion, allowing students to bounce ideas off of one another, and possibly prepare for a large group discussion. I think it can become a weakness when teachers try to use this program for an in-depth discussion with lots of detail. Its best use is for big ideas. Another weakness is that sometimes students need to refresh the page manually to get the latest posts from themselves and classmates. As a result, there may be duplications.

I would use this in my classroom to review a chapter in a textbook. Regardless of the subject, students would work in groups to tackle the main points of the chapter. In the event that there are several different groups of students, each group could be assigned a major topic of the chapter and discuss it. They could use the material from their discussion to teach the rest of the class about that particular big idea.