What is wickED?
wickED is a quality-assured online environment for 7-12 year olds (years 3-8). It has been developed to complement The Ministry of Education’s study support centres initiative.
wickED provides engaging curriculum-based learning activities in English and te reo Māori, many of which have been developed to reflect a literacy, numeracy and ESOL focus. The activities are intended to support facilitated or independent use by students.
What does the name mean?
The name ‘wickED’ comes from blending the names of virtual characters Ed and Wiki who are the hosts of the environment. They, along with Pasifika character Tipani, welcome students using the site and invite them to share their work.
wickED features
wickED provides interactives in English and te reo Māori, online activities such as crosswords and quizzes, an online storybook, story creation tools, a student gallery, regular student-centred projects and mini-projects. Students can also pose questions for the many celebrities and interesting people who are interviewed by Ed for Cool Kiwis.
Suggestions on ways to use wickED
Teachers using wickED might like to consider:
- placing a shortcut to wickED on computer desktops to ensure easy access
- reinforcing learning by integrating wickED’s interactives and themes in planning
- guiding students on how to use the Information Station to search the Internet
- using the search engine on TKI to find wickED links associated with ‘centres of interest’ or topics.
Exploring wickED
what is Topics?
Current Topic and More Topics are units of work that students can undertake. They include activities from several curriculum areas involving a range of thinking and learning skills. Students are provided with quality-assured websites to explore the suggested activities or to undertake research.
what is Information Station?
The Information Station provides a safe way for students to search the web. It offers:
- a list of quality-assured maths and language websites
- suggested search engines
- an online dictionary and thesaurus, maps, atlases, online newspapers, encyclopedias
- links to New Zealand libraries
- search hints
- webhunts
- instructions on how to use Frontpage to create a website.
what is Kokona Māori?
Kokona Māori provides a pathway to the Māori and te reo Māori resources on wickED. These include:
What is Student Gallery?
The Student Gallery features work sent in to wickED’s virtual characters Ed, Wicki and Tipani by students who have completed topic activities. (Details of how to contribute to the Student Gallery (Word 54KB)).
What is Cool Kiwis?
Cool Kiwis are New Zealanders of interest who have been invited by the virtual character Ed to be interviewed by the wickED team. Students can send suggestions about who they would like to see interviewed, and questions they would like asked. Contact us to suggest additions to this section.
What is wickED TV?
wickED TV provides a forum to showcase students’ video work. It includes information about the video-making and editing process.
Assistance for wickED
Telephone tutorials
The wickED team provides telephone tours of the website for individuals or groups. These can be scheduled for a school staff meeting or planning session.
For a group tutorial, a speaker phone or polycom telephone should be set up close to a suite of computers.
Contact us to arrange a suitable date and time.
To make sure the tutorial is pitched at the right level for staff, please include the following information:
- How many of those participating in the tutorial have used wickED before?
- What curriculum level and focus would be most useful for the group?
- How long the conference should be? (30–45 minutes is a popular length of time).
- Other factors we should be aware of?
Video-conferencing
The team can also provide video-conference based tutorials for those schools with video-conferencing equipment.
Please contact us
We would like to know what teachers and students would like to see on wickED. This can include suggesting themes for crosswords, topics, publishing student work on the site, or any new features you’d like to see.
Please contact us with any feedback or queries at wicked@tki.org.nz
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