I had used a Wiki once before in ETEC 540 when we worked as a group to analyze the differences between oral and text based cultures. I think in that course the experiment of collaborative writing was more successful than it has been so far in ETEC 565. In ETEC 540, we brainstormed by throwing up ideas and quotes and then organized our ideas, coming out with a reasonably succinct list. In this weeks exercise, I didn’t find the Wiki such a good space for our activity. What was the problem? Well the Wiki is not linear nor is it temporal. We were using it for a discussion, but it was not easy to see what new information had been added. It was necessary to read through everything to see if there was anything new. Not everyone seemed to be present. If everyone had been contributing it would have been even harder to follow the thread. My conclusion is that Wikis are not spaces for discussions; a forum works much better.
We were supposed to come up with a list, and this works in a Wiki. However, the spark to organize didn’t materialize. I started off the list, but only a few have added to it. There was not a spontaneous movement that gathered momentum. Nor was there any editing of other peoples submissions. We didn’t or haven’t yet touched anyone else’s work. This is unusual in such an experienced group. I think that this goes to show that perhaps the most important aspect of any activity are the instructions. A Wiki is a great collaborative space, but something was lacking in the instructions of this activity. Perhaps it would have worked as a small group space rather than whole group space. Perhaps instead of the instruction to discuss, we should have gone straight into making the list. I am not sure.
On a different note. I came up with some good activities for my Moodle course this week. If you have a moment please take a look at these two: http://moodle.met.ubc.ca/mod/resource/view.php?id=4648, and http://moodle.met.ubc.ca/mod/resource/view.php?id=4627. They are not quite finished, but you get the idea.
