Learning Technologies: Design & Applications

RE: collaboration and discussion within the wiki space

Reflecting on my participation:

I initated this wiki activity at the beginning of the week.

1. First, I a added a “sighting”.
2. Then, I thought that it might be useful to add a structure in the “discussion” area of the wiki, to ensure some type of organization to the conversations.
3. As time passed, and few entries were appearing, I thought that perhaps there was a need for clear objectives. So I added an area where 5 challenges and 5 strategies would be selected by the class.
4. After reading some of the comments, I decided to activate this area by adding a suggestion and finding a way to elicit participation.
5. I therefore added a suggestion in the strategies section, my name and asked people who agreed to also write their names. I replicated this model to the challenges section.

General impressions:

• The wiki discussion area is very different from an LMS standard threaded discussion space. 
  • For one, HTML is necessary in order to organize the writing. Without it, comments soon become a big soup of ideas.
  • I found that some of the students followed the bullet structure that was initiated, but some did not.
• Advantages in using wikis for group collaboration? 
  • It’s a change and it certainly triggers interest.
  • It is useful to know how wikipedia works.
  • HTML is also important to review once in while. I found most of my questions on the web (lists; bold; italics; etc.)
• Challenges of working with others in a collaborative wiki space?
  • Too many comments in one place.
  • Hard to distinguish between one author and another.
  • Challenging to keep some kind of order in the discussion.
  • Challenging to “discuss” and come to a decision when too many people are involved.
  • Hence, my quest for an operational structure.

Sighting

Examples of the ways in which the presence of social media is apparent in the lives of my students:

• They use e-portolios to publish their scripts and films in the digital film class.
• In Spanish, they are also starting to use e-portolios to gather their artifacts (PowerPoint presentations, etc.). Issues and challenges to be discussed (in the discussion area): How to assess e-portfolios; safety of online publishing; how to avoid palgiarism.
• In Moodle, we are exploring the use of forums and chats in Spanish. Issues and challenges to be discussed (in the discussion area): What is the idea teacher’s level of participation (intervention); ethics & web communication conventions.

Discussion:

Stategies and Challenges

Challenges:

• how to assess e-portfolios
• safety of online publishing
• how to avoid palgiarism
• what is the idea teacher’s level of participation (intervention)
• ethics & web communication conventions

Stategies:

• start with clear course conventions and assessment guidelines.
• take in consideration the time needed for instructor’s feedback.

Module 4: Social Media

Personal Publishing & Social Networks

RE: Public or private spaces for learning

Just a few years ago I would not have considered the idea of posting our films on YouTube, due to safety problems.

• Like Noelene, I work in an independent (private) institution. It is an affluent community. So, the risk of being targeted for kidnapping or any other kind of abuse with the objective of receiving money is real.
  • Parents have a very big say on the way we organize the school. They are involved and interested.
• To avoid problems on YouTube, the course asks students NOT to add credits. Their names cannot be found, not the school’s name.
  • They do get “comments” from “strangers”… but I would argue that students usually have other accounts in which they also have a public connection (Facebook; etc.)
• So, if parents complain about their films being on YouTube, I would expect that they have taken the necessary steps to avoid the same problem on other social public media.
• Our school also mandates the creation of e-portfolios (even the ministry of education mandated them at one point). Even though there are ways to make them private, e-portfolios are not meant to be private. They are created to be sent to universities, potential employers, etc. Of course, one can limit the dissemination of the information by sending invitations only…
• As a society, we are becoming more open to this public presence. However, I would venture to say that many professionals are also becoming more aware the public persona that they are creating. For this reason, they pay a lot of attention to what they publish and why.
• For teenagers, it is sometimes a bit of a situation because they don’t necessarily have the experience or the maturity to decide what is appropriate and what might be detrimental in the future. Their persona is in the process of being shaped and their might be different spaces for personal and professional styles. These should be at least separated if not very serious designed.