My final synthesis reflection for ETEC 565 is complete! It’s been posted in the “Synthesis” tab of my e-portfolio. Feel free to check it out at: https://blogs.ubc.ca/dbang/synthesis/.
(p.s- I’m thankful that there was no word limit which capped our final reflection. :))
Why did you choose this particular tool?
After examining the list of 50 storytelling tools from the CogDogRoo site, I had initially chosen Animoto to tell my story. However, while using it I found out that my text was limited to a certain number of characters and I couldn’t write as much as I wanted to for my narrative. Thus, I switched over to Prezi, a presentation software that I found had more interactive features than PowerPoint. I wanted to be able to combine text, images and embed a YouTube video to create my story. Also, I tried to bear in mind aspects of Bates and Poole’s (2003) SECTIONS framework for both myself and students with an emphasis on the ease of use, teaching and learning, as well as its novelty.
How did the tool impact the manner in which you told your story (perhaps in a way that is different had you just used text or related the story using your voice)?
I found that the tool I selected didn’t allow for using my voice recording to tell my story as users would have to click to play each “slide” or autoplay the presentation. Thus, this tool made me consider the importance of developing appropriate text and selecting relevant images that would convey my message. I think one of the most challenging aspects was selecting and narrowing down my topic so that I could tell a story in a succinct manner.
How might you use such tools in your own teaching to produce materials for students?
When I was creating my story, my purpose was tri-fold: 1) to incorporate a way that it could be used to illustrate a story that students could relate to on the impact of using evidence to inform their decision-making which is central to patient care, 2) to use it as a marketing tool to promote library services particularly that of a medical librarian (as I found Prezi to be far superior to that of traditional PowerPoint presentations, and static handouts) and 3) to fulfill the course requirements of using a Web 2.0 cloud-based digital storytelling application from the CogDogRoo site. Thus, I would use this tool as a discussion starter as part of my training modules to teach evidence-based searching, including how to use the PICO method, and the evidence-based medicine pyramid. Additionally, I would use this in the promotion of library services to staff and the general public.
How might students be given access to the same authoring tools?
As Prezi is a freely available online tool, students could use it to create and share their own stories with the rest of the class. This could even be used as an icebreaker integrated with the discussion forum on the Moodle site.
What kind of impact would you expect to see in your students in terms of motivation, creativity, or any other characteristics?
The kind of impact that I would expect to see is that of inspiration, motivation and creativity. I would hope that viewing this story would peak their interest and encourage them to learn more about the topics that I have introduced to them. Also, students can be challenged to learn something new, or delve deeper into topic(s) and/or online tools that they may have been familiar or unfamiliar with.
Reference
Bates, A.W. & Poole, G. (2003). Chapter 4: A framework for selecting and using
technology. In Effective teaching with technology in higher education: Foundations
for success (pp. 77-105). San Francisco: Jossey Bass Publishers.
YouTube video link at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rskC6c_5L1M
Editing images using Picasa:
After downloading Google’s Picasa and watching the provided YouTube tutorials from our e-learning toolkit at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7r36K0j-2Zw and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HD23c2VFQPc, I followed the instructions to practice cropping and resizing copies of an original image from my computer. Overall, I found this exercise to be relatively straightforward. Previously, I’ve used Paint to edit images as well as the standard photo editing software that comes with digital cameras but discovered the robust capabilities of using Picasa to manage photos including removing red eye, adding text, creating collages and also developing movies using photos that can be directly rendered then uploaded to YouTube.
Recording audio using Audacity:
After downloading Audacity, I found the tips on how to prepare for a recording were helpful prior to creating a test recording. I used a headset microphone and had to test the mic’s position so that it didn’t pick up any background noise. Also, it was useful to close windows (to eliminate the sound of any traffic), turn of the A/C (momentarily), and ensure that there would be no sudden interruptions. In any case, after a couple of pilot test runs, I was able to create a recording that was pretty clear. This exercise reminded me of recordings I made for my group project in ETEC 510, in which I used Free Sound Recorder to record several sound files and CamStudio to develop a couple of video tutorials. In both instances, I went through multiple revisions as I learned through trial and error how to record sound files with minimal disruptions and background noise.
I just tried out the Wimba Voice Email feature that we have access to from our ETEC 565 course site and found it relatively painless and easy to use. It reminded me of our first intro exercises where we each recorded a brief message about ourselves using Wimba. In any case, I had to edit my WebCT Vista profile and add my email as I was prompted by Wimba that my email address was required. Next, I tried to send to specific recipients but was unable to view this list using my IE 9 browser. So, I decided to switch my browser to Opera and was able to view the list and selected one of my classmates to send my voice email. After recording my message using my headset microphone (and also including a text message) I clicked on the send button and was prompted that my message had been sent! 🙂 Now, I’m just waiting for my classmate to try testing it out too by sending me a voice message back using Wimba Voice Email.
*Update: Success! I’m pleased to report that I received a voice reply from my colleague. We’ve sort of made history in a sense as this was the first time we’ve both used Wimba to send voice emails via an online class. Yay! 🙂
In my experience with blogs, I’ve used it more as a marketing tool related to our library’s services to healthcare staff rather than posting reflections like the one we use for our course. Some of the aspects that have been of minor concern are related to Noelene’s scenario in which unnecessary commentaries may be received as part of posting information for public consumption (i.e. spam). In relation to this, I’ve found that it’s important to change the default settings of blogs (or any social media site like Facebook, etc) so that it’s at the appropriate level of privacy and format that your preferences are. It’s interesting how the Internet may have an unforgettable memory as the amount of digital information grows exponentially. Thus, the implications of this type of digital memory cannot be taken lightly. I think that all individuals need to understand how a service offered by a particular site works by consulting their terms of service and also consider how much information (especially that of a personal nature) they will be revealing to others. Online predators, hackers and the like are one aspect to contend with, but I’ve even heard of individuals having their homes ransacked based on an update they decided to post on their Facebook profile. Also, I appreciate the nature of information sharing, however when you start seeing things like ultrasound images as someone’s profile photos, it makes you wonder what’s going on. As humans it’s in our nature to want to communicate, but how much information is too much information to share with others?
Yet, there are positive aspects of using blogs and other social media sites. For example, there is the ability for one to connect more quickly and readily with others, writing improvements can occur, and people are able to use blogs as reflective tools (akin to personal journals and diaries). As Downes (2004) states “blogging is an opportunity to exchange our point of view with the rest of the world not just people in our immediate environment.” As such, I think that the advent of the Internet has levelled the playing field in a way that it is easier to connect with individuals from all walks of life and different professions all around the world. Also, the use of reflections for student learning really puts the responsibility of learning into the students’ own hands. They can determine the nature and the direction in which their learning needs take them in any given course. Additionally, with the use of social media online learning communities are far more expansive rather than limited to the traditional confines of classroom learning. Thus, the learning journey can continue on indefinitely depending on the level of participation by individuals.
I also find that tracking other people’s blogs helps inform me in my own practice and is a form of ongoing professional development. Although blogs are unlike journal articles, they can be more current and offer timely information (as journal articles go through a process to enter into the publication phase). Thus, with blogs, information can be quickly distributed online where ideas can flourish and be shared with others. It can also have a multiplying effect where one blogger’s ideas leads to inspire another person and those ideas may further develop. It does illustrate the power of sharing information, as a collective community each of us can learn from one another through the use of these online tools.
Reference
Downes, S. (2004). Educational blogging. Educause Review. Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERM0450.pdf
I think that Noelene is on the right track with using LiveJournal (LJ) to improve students writing. However, she does need to address the issues regarding parents’ concerns about the public nature of the activity and the comments students receive from strangers. Perhaps, Noelene hasn’t had a discussion with her students and parents regarding the appropriate use, abilities to change security/privacy settings to prevent unwanted commentary and restricted access, online safety issues, and the option for students to use pseudonyms rather than their real names for their blogs.
Noelene could offer some information to parents and students regarding how to change their security settings using LJ at: http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=24. Also, it’s imperative to have a discussion about online safety tips by directing them to available resources online including information from the LJ site at: http://www.livejournal.com/site/safetytips.bml. The LJ FAQ section is a great way to start the conversation and address some of the parental concerns and any questions that students may have in regards to its usage at: http://www.livejournal.com/support/faq.bml. Specifically, in regards to comments students could be given the option to change their privacy settings and choose who can reply to their entries (either registered users or friends rather than the default feature of “everybody”). Here’s a link to more information from LJ on how to control who can post comments at: http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=23. Particularly, this FAQ section mentions that if individuals raise the security levels of their entries they can essentially limit who can comment and will prevent anonymous entries.
Additionally, considering that these students are in Grade 9, it may help Noelene to obtain parental consent to the use of these blogs by offering them information on how it will ultimately benefit the students. I’ve compiled a brief list of references that I retrieved by conducting a preliminary search using the ERIC database below. Noelene could use this information to gather the positive benefits of using blogging in the classroom and to communicate that to the parents. For example, even the video by Fisch (2007) illustrated how students were kept motivated and felt more connected through the use of blogs. It also showed how the public nature of students postings helped make them more accountable to be able to support and defend the information they made available in the public domain. With that said, I’m certain that no student, parent, nor teacher would want inappropriate comments spamming their educational blogs as that is definitely not the intended purpose. Thus, Noelene may also want to consider developing a set of online standards for students to follow for their blogs to address this potential issue similar to the one created by Redekopp & Bourbonniere (2009) which includes aspects such as using appropriate language, not identifying themselves or others by name, and ensuring that all comments must be approved by the teacher prior to it being posted for others to read.
References
Downes, S. (2004). Educational blogging. Educause Review. Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERM0450.pdf
Fisch, K. (2007). Blogging: In their own words. The Fischbowl. Retrieved from http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2007/06/blogging-in-their-own-words.html
Pape, L. (2010). Blended teaching and learning. School Administrator, 67(4), 16-21. Retrieved from http://www.aasa.org/SchoolAdministratorArticle.aspx?id=12924
Redekopp, R. & Bourbonniere, E. (2009). Giving reluctant students a voice. Learning and Leading with Technology, 26(7), 34-35. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/EJ839528.pdf
Robertson, J. (2011). The educational affordances of blogs for self-directed learning. Computers & Education, 57(2), 1628-1644
West, K. C. (2008). Weblogs and literary response: Socially situated identities and hybrid social languages in English class blogs. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 51(7), 588-598.
Yancey, K. B. (2009). Writing by any other name. Principal Leadership, 10(10), 26-29.
My musings on blogging:
Upon reflection of setting up my UBC WordPress blog, I can definitely say that I’m beginning to master the brief learning curve and getting accustomed to the features that WordPress blogs has to offer. I think it also helped that I’ve used Google’s Blogger before and I definitely appreciate the use of this platform for my ongoing reflections on my learning journey throughout this course. One of the aspects I am still working on is sprucing up my html skills as at times I’ve had to revise and re-edit my posts as the html code hasn’t been visually perfect. In any case, I do find it useful to switch easily from html to visual views so that I can gauge how the html will affect the appearance of my post.
With the proliferation of blogs ranging from personal to professional in nature, it’s clear how functional and useful these can be as it can inform one’s learning and also obtain different opinions on a variety of topics. As the e-learning toolkit cited blogging, particularly educational blogging is indeed becoming increasingly popular. To keep up with them it does help to have them all on RSS feeds using products like Google Reader to organize and track all the information available. There are several professional blogs that I follow including David Rothman, Krafty Librarian, Jessamyn West’s librarian.net, Dean Giustini’s The Search Principle- among others as I find them particularly informative to help me stay current with the latest trends occurring in the field of librarianship.
As a notable mention, I recently stumbled upon a paper by my previous course instructor Dr. Diane Janes on blogging. It offered practical insight into how blogs can be incorporated in a constructivist classroom. Here’s a link to the paper for further reading: http://www.jdwwebdesign.com/edutech/pdfs/Blogs-Constructivist.pdf
Wikis:
Exploring the world of wikis was first examined in my LIS 766 Intro to Health Sciences Librarianship course at the University of Western Ontario. Out of curiosity, I re-visited my course wiki site at: http://healthresearchguides.wikispaces.com/ and surprisingly the Dentistry subject page I created was revised by a former classmate back in ’07. Further to this experience working on a wiki page, I recall that last term in ETEC 510 Design of Technology-Supported Learning Environments one of the pages I created was on Motivational Theories and Design at: http://sites.wiki.ubc.ca/etec510/Motivational_Theories_and_Design. As there was a bit of a hiatus since ’07 to ’11 that I had experienced working on wikis I remember consulting the various help pages from Wikipedia and gathering resources to create my wiki entry as citing verifiable sources was imperative to ensure its accuracy. It was quite an intensive research process and a definitely worthwhile experience to learn to use the “wiki language.” In the end, I don’t think I realized the full potential of working on a wiki as I didn’t chose to edit another person’s existing entry and instead I created my own. I recall that other students in the class also expressed the fact that perhaps MET students may be “too polite” to edit another students’ work. Unlike Wikipedia’s infamous edit wars, I felt that the process of working on a wiki entry using MediaWiki was pretty diplomatic and straightforward.
Looking now to my most recent experience with actually editing pages and engaging in the discussion “talk” portion of this week’s wiki activity I have to say it was a bit challenging to keep up-to-date with all the conversation that was occurring. I imagine that with more than 20+ students working on a wiki entry (say for example Wikipedia which is publicly accessible and can be edited by anyone) it can probably become even more challenging to keep content organized and maintain its accuracy. Yet, there are definitely benefits to using wikis as information is forever changing and certainly the features of a wiki enables this dynamic content to be created, edited and continually discussed. At the same time, it is dependent on its active contribution (to maintain its currency). Thus, some of the content from my health sciences course wiki may be outdated as I noticed from the history tab that it was last revised in ’07. Since that time, links may have changed, and more recent information about topics are probably available. In contrast, I imagine that the ETEC 510 Design Wiki will continue to be active as new rounds of MET students create new entries and revisions causing iterations of the course wiki to unfold.
Also, another notable mention related to the world of wikis is the HLWIKI- which is chock-full of information on the health sciences library field (geared for health librarians but accessible to anyone) available at: http://hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca/index.php/UBC_HealthLib-Wiki_-_A_Knowledge-Base_for_Health_Librarians.
References
Beasley-Murray, J. (2009). User:Jbmurray/madness. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jbmurray/Madness
Guistini, D. (2011). HLWIKI. Retrieved from http://hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca/index.php/UBC_HealthLib-Wiki_-_A_Knowledge-Base_for_Health_Librarians
Janes, D. (n.d.). Weaving blogs into a constructivist classroom. Retrieved from http://www.jdwwebdesign.com/edutech/pdfs/Blogs-Constructivist.pdf
MediaWiki. (2011). ETEC 510: Design wiki. Retrieved from http://sites.wiki.ubc.ca/etec510/Main_Page
Wikipedia (2011). WikiProject murder, madness and mayhem. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Murder_Madness_and_Mayhem
Wikispaces. (2007). Health research guides. Retrieved from ttp://healthresearchguides.wikispaces.com/
This activity illustrated the importance of considering the various policies of companies including their terms of service and privacy. Since many of these social software sites are relatively new they are prone to change and may evolve over time. I acknowledge that it was a bit cumbersome to sift through and read the service agreements but it was worthwhile. It aids in the understanding of the contractual obligations of companies and users as well as informs a user about what kind of service agreement they’re entering into. With that said, I’m not sure whether most people even take the time to read these agreements before they simply sign up and start using a service. It’s similar to software downloads, how often do people read through the mighty scroll-down list of information prior to hitting the “I accept” button? However, with the continual advent of new resources it is imperative to gain an understanding and awareness of the complete terms that you’re signing up for rather than blindly following along with the masses.
For this social software activity, I chose to examine the terms of service (TOS) for the following four websites:
Flickr:
Yahoo!’s Terms of Use-http://info.yahoo.com/legal/ca/yahoo/utos/utos-ca01.html
Yahoo!’s Privacy Policy-http://info.yahoo.com/privacy/ca/yahoo/
Delicious:
Yahoo!’s Terms of Service- http://www.delicious.com/help/terms
Yahoo’s Privacy Policy- http://info.yahoo.com/privacy/us/delicious/
Yahoo’s Copyright and Intellectual Property Policy- http://info.yahoo.com/copyright/us/details.html?pir=0aoArcBibUno3PtL8xGZMXVYOuCAnQ1BcgegW9KX
Twitter:
Terms of Service- http://twitter.com/tos
Privacy Policy- http://twitter.com/privacy
Second Life:
Terms of Service- http://secondlife.com/corporate/tos.php?lang=en-US
Privacy Policy- http://secondlife.com/corporate/privacy.php?lang=en-US
1. In regards to ownership of materials posted by members:
i) Flickr – As this is run by Yahoo!, their terms of service explains that the content uploaded by a member is their own responsibility and in Section 8: “Content submitted or made available for inclusion on the service” it clearly states that Yahoo! does not claim ownership of the content that a person submits. However, it does grant Yahoo! world-wide, royalty-free and non-exclusive license(s) to the content.
ii) Delicious – In Section 3: “User-posted Content,” the terms of service for Delicious states that the posted content is granting permission to Delicious and others to access and use it “in connection with Delicious and otherwise in connection with its affiliates’ businesses. Individuals can attach a license agreement to their compilation of links but Delicious does not make any warranties regarding these” (i.e. they’re not responsible for the license agreements, nor liable for them, etc).
iii) Twitter– Under the section entitled “Your Rights” it states that individuals retain their rights to any content that is submitted, posted or displayed through Twitter. However, submission grants “worldwide, nonexclusive, royalty-free license (with the right to sublicense) to use copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display and distribute such Content in any and all media or distribution methods (now known or later developed).” Additionally, they state that “what’s yours is yours- you own your Content (and your photos are part of that Content).”
iv) Second Life – I noticed that out of all the TOS I examined, the one for Second Life was the most detailed reading consisting of 12 pages (printed out). In section 7 “Content Licenses and Intellectual Property Rights” it outlines that individuals retain “any and all intellectual property rights you already hold under applicable law in Content you upload, publish, and submit or through servers, websites, and other areas of the Service subject to the rights, licenses and other terms of the Agreement, including any underlying rights of other users or Linden Lab in Content that you may use or modify.”
2. The purpose in which materials be used:
i) Flickr– Yahoo! states that it will use the material for the purposes of proving and promoting the specific Yahoo! Group to which the content was submitted.
ii) Delicious– Under section 1: Usage license, it outlines that individuals are granted a limited license to access and use Delicious in accordance to their TOCs. However, they also state that at any time they can charge for commercial usage in the future. In section 2: User responsibility, they state that Delicious serves only as a repository of information.
iii) Twitter– I noticed that under their “Basic Terms” they state that the services they provide are “always evolving and the form and nature of services that Twitter provides may change from time to time without prior notice to you.” Additionally, they can stop services either permanently or temporarily without notice and can limit the use and storage at their discretion. In regards to usage, the information that individuals use to post on Twitter is then distributed instantly, with the ability for others to view it from around the world. Also, in the “Your Rights” section, they state that Twitter can make the individual’s content available to “companies, organizations or individuals who partner with Twitter for syndication, broadcast, distribution, or publication of such Content on other media and services, subject to our terms and conditions for such Content use.” They also have an “evolving” set of rules with their partners.
iv) Second Life– Section 8 “Conduct by Users of Second Life” outlines the usage rights and behaviours of its users and also section 7 describes how users grant content licenses to Linden Labs allowing them to use snapshots and machinima of their information online.
3. The site’s appropriateness for my students/healthcare staff:
i) Flickr– This could be used to share photos and images of diagrams such as evidence-based pyramids that they can discuss.
ii) Delicious– This is already used by library professionals and a wide array of individuals to share their favourite bookmarks online. I can see it being effectively used by healthcare staff to share new and commonly used bookmarks to help them stay current.
iii) Twitter– This could be potentially useful to share real-time, brief snippets of information/links to others. It would be particularly useful for individuals looking for quick information ready at their fingertips using their smartphones and other portable electronic devices.
iv) Second Life– I’m not certain how this site could be effectively used in my given setting as it is essentially a virtual world. Yet I have heard of some educators and library staff using it. However, I’m also aware of the downsides of its pervasive use as evident in the media. For example, there was a CBC documentary illustrating the destructive effects of its use on families and relationships at: http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/2008-2009/strangers_in_paradise/video.html. Thus, for any consideration I’d probably have to do more research on the benefits and use to realize perhaps the full potential that it may have to offer rather than the negative aspects.
4. In my opinion, how well are the privacy interests of members represented:
i) Flickr– Yahoo!’s Privacy Policy asks users that they consent to the collection, use and disclosure of information including the “transfer of this information to the United States and/or other countries for storage, processing, and use by Yahoo! and its affiliates in order to provide the Service to you.” It’s unclear what other countries would store this information and who the affiliates may be that have access to members’ information. However, it does have a notice on section 3’s “Your registration obligations” in that parents wishing access for their child is responsible for determining the Service’s appropriateness.
ii) Delicious– Interestingly enough, their Privacy Policy appeared to be in a state of flux as it stated that as of April 27, 2011 Delicious is owned by AVOS. During the transition period the site will continue to be run by Yahoo! and an person’s Delicious account is subject to Yahoo!’s Privacy Policy OR they can opt to transfer their information to AVOS and be under their privacy policy. Overall, Yahoo! states that “We may collect personal information, including email addresses, when individuals register to use the Delicious website and services, post a link to the Delicious website or submit questions, comments or bug reports. We may also, at times, collect our users’ IP addresses and information regarding our users’ use of our website and services. We may use such IP addresses to help diagnose problems with our servers, track movement within our website and, if necessary, deny service in accordance with our Terms of Service. We may also collect information related to the referring URL, access times and browser type. Unless required by law, we will not share our users’ personal information, Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and usage information, except with their consent or in aggregate or anonymous form, with third parties.” However, I noticed that it also mentioned how they have the right to modify all or some of the Privacy Policy at any time without notice (so it does raise a question in regards an individual’s rights as it appears to offer more protection for the company).
iii) Twitter– In contrast, I found Twitter’s Privacy policy embedded in their TOS under the heading of “Privacy.” However, my initial thoughts that this small paragraph would outline everything was quickly squashed as I noticed a link within it that directed me to their complete “Privacy Policy.” In this complete version at: http://twitter.com/privacy it appeared that they keep track of a variety of user data including: registration info, tweets, following, lists, location data, log data, links, cookies, and third party services (including the use of Google Analytics to help them monitor their website traffic and other information). The ability for the user to permanently delete their Twitter account is included and individuals can modify or reactivate their account within 30 days if they choose to do so.
iv) Second Life– They also had a separate Privacy policy that was not included in their TOS. I located it at: http://secondlife.com/corporate/privacy.php?lang=en-US. In it, they describe in more detail the following aspects:
Overall, I noticed that the onus was primarily on the user in terms of the amount of personal information that they decide to disclose. As Second Life’s privacy policy states “Please be aware that such information is public information and you should not expect privacy or confidentiality of this information.”
(Source: Flickr images: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mobology/2755744656/, Creative Commons License).
I recall in high school, my peers were using ICQ, a synchronous communication tool to stay connected with each other and that transitioned into MSN Live Messenger. It was mostly still text-based since the video option was a bit more grainy and unpredictable than it is now. In the past, I’ve utilized Skype to stay connected with my family and friends but more often now I use Googletalk and Gmail’s embedded live chat/video function. Also, in related news it was quite interesting to learn this week that Facebook and Skype have teamed up so that users will be able to use both applications in one interface.
In terms of the practice activity using WebCT Vista, I found it straightforward to set up a Live Classroom using the Build tab, then adding a content link into my folder. However, I was unable to access the Wimba Live Classroom/Admin link at http://wimbaclassroom.elearning.ubc.ca/launcher.cgi?room=etec565. I tried on several different web browsers and still received the error page that it couldn’t display the content.
In any case, I still found the toolkit activities useful to learn about the various third party modules that can be integrated into our Moodle sites for full audio/video conferencing. I recall that the use of Nanogong was suggested recently by one of our colleagues from the course discussion forums but to find out that there are several applications that can be used is very promising indeed. There’s everything from OpenMeetings, Dimdim, Elluminate Live, Wimba, and Marratech. It’ll be important to consider the affordances of each resource and consider how students can achieve learning objectives through the use of these tools.
What kinds of advantages do you see in using wikis for group collaboration?
The affordances of wikis includes the flexibility for any individual to edit, revise, add or delete content which makes it beneficial for online groupwork. It also occurs asynchronously which enables students to collaborate regardless of a fixed time or place. Additionally, the instantaneous nature of sharing information may facilitate group collaboration. Overall, I found it easy to use to collaborate with others and particularly for the discussions I could decide which ones I wanted to be a part of as it sparked my interest.
What are some of the challenges of working with others in a collaborative wiki space?
Since it occurs asynchronously, it may be difficult to ascertain immediate feedback or understand the nuances of text postings from fellow students. Also, all participants in a wiki setting need to understand that the information that they contribute may be apt to change. Potential challenges that I foresee could arise would be similar to the infamous “edit wars” that occur in Wikipedia. Additionally, due to the dynamic nature of a wiki, there may not necessarily be a final end product in that revisions may never end until all group participation subsides. Another consideration is that with a wiki, it may lack some objectivity (the information could be biased or purely opinion-based) and not credible (i.e. where are the supporting references?). Also, in terms of its currency and relevance- wikis would need to be maintained in order to keep it up to date. Furthermore, there may be varying degrees of experience ranging from students using wikis for the first time to those with more frequent use. I observed that one of my classmates (in anticipation of this) linked a help file on how to contribute to wiki talk pages to help others out. Lastly, like discussion forums on our WebCT/Vista course site, I imagine how difficult it would be for students to respond to every discussion thread and to monitor wiki changes on a continual basis.
Overall reflection on the wiki activity
As well, while I was working on the wiki activity, I noticed that in the beginning of the week the discussions were sparse. In order to effectively contribute to a discussion, individuals need to participate fully otherwise it will lack a sense of engagement and interaction. Thus, without individuals contributions a wiki may remain stagnant until changes are made to it. Something else that may become problematic is that wiki discussions may become lengthy as one of our fellow students Ryan noticed and encouraged the use of indents to help organize the flow of information. Yet, scrolling through a massive discussion list could be a bit daunting too as it may end up being quite unreadable since there will be multiple topics being covered and lack a sense of coherency. Lastly, I found it helpful that students chose to add their corresponding signatures with the timestamp at the end of their postings so that it could be easily identifiable. I think that working on “finalizing” our class strategies and challenges for engaging students using social media may be a potential issue. There will need to be a group consensus that all revisions are finalized and that everyone is satisfied with the final list. I foresee myself re-visiting the wiki to observe the changes and to contribute any additional information that may be helpful to my colleagues.
References
Alexander, B. (2006). Web 2.0: A new wave of innovation for teachign and learning? EDUCAUSE Review, 41(2), 34-44. Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0621.pdf
Mabrito, M., & Medley, R. (2008). Why professor Johnny can’t read: Understanding the net generation’s texts. Innovate, 4(6). Retrieved from http://innovateonline.info/pdf/vol4_issue6/Why_Professor_Johnny_Can’t_Read-__Understanding_the_Net_Generation’s_Texts.pdf
Wesch, M. (2007). A vision of students today (& what teachers must do). Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2008/10/a-vision-of-students-today-what-teachers-must-do/
Wesch, M. (2007). YouTube video: A vision of students today. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o