social media – Diana Bang's ETEC 565A e-portfolio

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.

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