About seven years ago
I had my first experience with a Wiki.
Over the summer a colleague I worked with an online writing class that
she developed for former students who wanted to write over the summer. Some activities were synchronistic and some
were asynchronistic. A wiki
was part of this “class” and students were writing a story together. A first line was given and then they added to
the story. Like most communal writings,
it took twists and turns that were funny, frustrating and unexpected, but the experience
was thought-provoking. The same activity,
done the old fashion way by students passing around a paper and adding to
another’s story was energy and laughter filled.
Students were sharing and almost trying to “out do” one another. It was a great writing assignment to help
with writing fluency and creativity.
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| Please note the "pleasant frustration" of the boy on the left :) |
That same feeling was not what I experienced with the online
Wiki. Sure, there were some comments
back and forth, but no collaboration.
That is what worries me about a wiki – the fact that everyone is trying
to just do what is expected of them and there is no real collaboration. Norton-Sprague says that “Communication is
the heart of human behavior” and, in this case face to face communication has a
real advantage. I’ve thought of future
projects I could do modeled after the Wikis we are doing in class. I could create categories and students would
work cooperatively to fill in all the blanks. However, I wonder if this is
the best affordance? The same assignment,
done synchronisticly face to face, would cause less, “ I’ll do this and you do
that” (jigsaw) and more discussion and teamwork even if the work were
divided.
However, I can see a place I really could have used a
wiki. My CLT of 8 is a new grouping and
anxious to share lessons, ideas, etc. We
started emailing, but many correspondences were lost in the Outlook
jungle. So I placed folders on the Staff
drive and we have been putting them there.
However, if I would have created a wiki, designed after the ones we are
doing in class, instead of a jumble of folders, we would have a well design
curriculum with input from everyone.
Richardson has many ideas of how to incorporate Wikis and he
states that it is truly the 21st century collaborative environment. Maybe that is true, but I still feel that
students need to master the face to face transactions and interactions even
while navigating the life of a Net genner.
As the designer, I always need to determine the best affordance for the
task.
3 comments:
Your comparison of face-to-face interaction to the setup of wikis is interesting. The idea of setting up a wiki with your colleagues makes a lot of sense. As long as you set up a clear structure, couldn't you create collaborative activities for your students? Assuming the ability to access the Internet at home, both synchronous and asynchronous could be possible. Our students' native form of communication is on Facebook and through texting. What do you think about wikis as a way to leverage what they are comfortable with?
Your comparison of face-to-face interaction to the setup of wikis is interesting. The idea of setting up a wiki with your colleagues makes a lot of sense. As long as you set up a clear structure, couldn't you create collaborative activities for your students? Assuming the ability to access the Internet at home, both synchronous and asynchronous could be possible. Our students' native form of communication is on Facebook and through texting. What do you think about wikis as a way to leverage what they are comfortable with?
I REALLY like the idea of placing the items on Wikis. Would you make it private or allow others to access it? I feel that it maybe easier for the teachers in your building to share lessons back and forth, by just uploading something into a certain strand in the curriculum.
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