Our midterm in EDUC 762 is a collaborative activity. I have been paired with 3 other classmates (we are Group 3) and I will be researching wiki as assessment.
Below is a very rough draft of my participation.
Click on my wiki to see a formatted version - click here.
Greg Pratt
EDUC 762
Group 3
Peer to Peer Collaboration/Wiki
Spring 2008
Introduction to wiki, its uses & benefits
Introduction
According to Bernie Dodge (http://webquest.sdsu.edu/necc2004/blogs-and-wikis.htm) wikis were developed in 1995 by Ward Cunningham. The word means quick in Hawaiian. Cunningham's definition of a a wiki is the simplest online database that could possibly work. The archetypal wiki is Wikipedia, a collaborative effort with over a quarter million entries. Wikis allow open editing. Setting on the wiki can allow anyone can edit anyone else's writing, or undo a previous edit. This leads to a shared ownership of the collected work. To experience this, you can add an entry to Wikipedia or set up your own free wikispace on any of a number of wiki sites. If you have sufficient geek experience you can install your own wiki software on a server running Linux or Mac OS X. Most are open source.
Uses
In “Using Wikis for Summative and Formative Assessment” Marija Cubric outlines the following uses for wiki in instructional settings:
• Add (referenced) contribution to the weekly topic analysis
• Add definition to a topic discussion
• Review an article/web-site/standard relative to the topic
• Complete a practical task
• Develop essay
• Review the work of your colleague and provide comments
Her list reveals a dual nature of wiki, there is potential for academic skill development in writing, critical thinking, and other above the course level outcomes that learning institutions strive to achieve. At the same time, wiki provide a vehicle to develop collaborative skills and develop facility in the use of appropriate instructional technology for task completion.
Emma Tonkin in “Making the Case for Wiki” presents the uses for wiki in a broader context. She describes the following wiki uses:
Single-user Wikis
Talking to yourself may well be the first sign of madness, but what about writing to yourself? At first sight, it seems peculiar to imagine a single author making good use of a wiki. Wikis are collaborative environments, after all - or they're fast flexible multi-user web development platforms. What can one person do with a wiki?
• Brainstorming in the form of a wikiweb, which she describes as a concept map in wiki page.Or, rephrased, what on earth is the good of wiki software for a handheld or PDA (Personal Digital Assistant)?
• a single user wiki is a marvellous way of collecting and presenting information over a period of time.
Lab Book
Students requiring a place to keep an online lab book or research notebook are in much the same situation as the 'single user' jotting down brainstorming ideas, except for a number of details:
• The students may wish to create an index and entries cross-referenced by date and by content.
• Page export facilities in various forms are useful, if not necessary; for example, if the student can export their completed pages as a well typeset PDF document, the results can easily be used and shared in a variety of scenarios, or even bound into a book and used as a permanent record.
Collaborative Writing
Wikis are available online, for anybody granted access, and usually include the vital versioning information that allows authors to track the history of their documents. They appear to be an ideal platform for collaborative authorship, and indeed certain projects such as the Wikipedia, an online encyclopaedia, have proved to be entirely successful.
Wikis destined for collaborative writing should therefore include:
• a page locking system
• a versioning system
• the ability to temporarily remove the edit functionality for a given page
Knowledge Base
Any good learning community needs to retain their experiences somewhere, and a wiki makes a reasonably good knowledge base.
My teammate Patrick M pointed me to the online journal The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning. In a 2005 analysis of wiki the authors of this article conclude: “The wiki has clear potential in distance education, allowing users to brainstorm ideas with an unlimited number of people around the world, and to collaborate with them in exchanging files and developing webpages.” They go to articulate both a use and a benefit of wiki when they write: “It is hoped that an increasing number of educators will encourage their students to develop the simple online editing and sharing skills that make wikis useful.”
Benefits
Linda Schwartz, Sharon Clark, Mary Cossarin, and Jim Rudolph in a 2004 article from the previously mentioned online journal outline a number of benefits arguing that “wikis can provide an efficient, flexible, user friendly and cost-effective interface for collaboration, knowledge creation and archiving, and student interaction. Lack of standardized formatting across wiki programs makes WYSIWYG editing attractive. The need for minimal technical skills allows users to concentrate on content rather than on the technical process of writing, and reduces the need for student support.”
In Corporate Wiki Users: Results of a Survey Ann Majchrzak et al reported that a survey of 168 corporate wiki users disclosed three main types of benefits from corporate wikis: enhanced reputation, work made easier, and helping theorganization to improve its processes. These benefits were seen as more likely when the wiki was used for tasks requiring novel solutions and the information posted was from credible sources.
Cubric prefaced her analysis of the benefits of wiki by saying “Regarding the theoretical foundation of this work, it is obvious that wiki is a textbook example of constructivist tool for learning . . . “ Among the benefits she lists (see Appendix for full analysis) are just-in-time learning, “structured dialogue” via learning, and a movement toward “connective” writing. An interesting finding asserted that wiki help student employability by preparing them for teamwork, global audience and peer reviews and in general for the new business model where “collaboration is the expectation rather than exception”
Weaknesses & challenges of wiki as an assessment tool
Jeremiah Owyang outlined the following wiki weaknesses at his blog site
To me, public wikis are one of the most problematic of all the social tools. I’ve created, managed, or been part of several public wikis, and as soon as they get popular, they get vandalized. The challenge is that turning over that much control over to the crowd gives one person nearly 90% control of the content. Sure, you can revert it but it becomes a cat and mouse game. I deployed the industry wiki for the Data Storage Industry, and we had to lock it, and hand out keys to trusted members of the community due to vandalism, same with the ScobleShow wiki, which is permanently disabled. Wikipedia? Same thing. In my frustration, I wrote this piece on the problem with wikis is people.
Other weaknesses and challenges of wiki surfaced in our class include the unfamiliar format, the somewhat crude and confusing interface or view, the difficulty in attribution of authorship and time requirement. While this participant in our class revised their opinion, their first impression of wiki was: “In my initial assessment of the wiki earlier this week, I absolutely hated it, and wanted nothing to do with it. Because of it's minimalist-looking webpage, I was turned off from the very beginning, and it didn't look very user-friendly.” So what was accurately described as a “minimalist page was an initial turn off. This may pose a significant challenge to the generation of learners raised on high levels of participant controlled functionality that is aesthetically under the control of the individual. Another participant in the same class writes on our discussion board about wiki: “What happens if more than one person is making an edit to the same content in a Wiki? Common sense tells me that whoever clicks save most recent gets their changes posted on the Wiki. Where this confuses me is if I am spending a great deal of time modifying information in a Wiki, only to realize someone else overrides it...this could end up in much wasted time.” This latter concern “wasted effort” would effectively block the efficicacy of wiki.
The issue of time required is clearly a barrier or cost to the use of wiki. An innovator in the use of social networks in composition instruction writes: “I can think of other reasons for not rushing to accept social networking apps. The main one is time. I have my students using blogs, wikis, and RSS now. And I've been wanting to start incorporating podcasts and videos. But to learn how to use them (some of my students do use them, which is great!) effectively in my classes, I just don't have the time” (http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/2007/August/HypefromtheMediaandfromW.html)
A member of Group 3, my collaborative group for this midterm activity writes on the E Learning for Educators blog: “Do you see wiki as an example of authenticity in activity or assessment? No as it is too uncontrolled for my taste and comfort level.”
Finally, one of my colleagues in my midterm collaborate group wrote: “I would emphasize to my students that most of what is posted in wikis could be unverified.” This is perhaps the most frequently raised objection to wiki.
Examples of application of wiki in an online classroom.
Below are a list of applications for wiki in online classrooms. I would argue that perhaps the strongest set of applications involve the writing process and the publication process. My colleague at Mesa Community College, Shelley Rodrigo, English faculty and Instructional Technologist wrote on January 7, 2008 on E Learning for Educators: “Peer review of writing projects in a wiki is always interesting. Using the page history is helpful for both the student to learn from their classmates as well as my tracking of student work. I also like having students co-develop resource pages using a wiki.”
• Add (referenced) contribution to the weekly topic analysis
• Add definition to a topic discussion
• Review an article/web-site/standard relative to the topic
• Complete a practical task
• Develop essay
• Review the work of your colleague and provide comments
• Brainstorming
• Lab book
• Collaborative writing
At least one learning objective connected to the use wiki.
Clearly a number of learning objectives can be both articulated, taught and assessed via wiki. The most common general area seems to involve writing. One learning objective that might be taught and assessed online would be to have an original work of academic writing be revised by both the author and a classmate. Thinking back to Shelley Rodrigo’s comments, it seems that an increased quantity, quality, and process as measured by revision in the writing process may be connected to the use of wiki.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Wikis
In the space of 24 months I have moved from ground zero (only knowing about wiki through Wikipedia) to an informed novice in the area of wiki use in instructional settings.
Per the module 2 requirements the link for the wiki used in EDUC 762 can be found at
http://www.seedwiki.com/wiki/uofw_assessment_course/uofw_assessment_course?t&usermessage=&CFID=3621561&CFTOKEN=91691100&jsessionid=c2302632751164473998329
As a part of the requirements for EDUC 760 E Learning For Educators, the first class in the Graduate Certificate Program in Online Learning and Teaching I began a wiki - E Learning for Educators. My experience with this wiki reflected the following:
1. The dynamic nature of a wiki
2. The initial period of a wiki - great solitude. This is similar to blogging
3. The tremendous flexibility of wiki
4. Specific application as a documentation for a portfolio
5. An entry point for access to other relevant sites
Beyond these uses I do see potential applications for my students:
1. Authentic writing opportunities
2. Bring both authenticity, connectiveness (see paper below) and continuity to learning
3. Collaboration
4. Increased activity and ownership of learning (Scroll down on this link to see a list of courses using wiki)
"Where I’d like to see connectivism go is in the direction of personalized learning environments, or perhaps what Siemens calls “learning ecologies”. However, I’d like to take that idea in the K-12 realm to be a PLE that would follow the student through school, and then beyond. I think we can take existing technologies that build social relationships and harness these for learning AND instruction….
This is a great little paper on some of the changes organizations who need deal with training or education are facing due to the explosion of connectivism in society. George Siemens presented this “white paper” recently at the Google Developers Conference."
The full white paper
Greg@Az
Per the module 2 requirements the link for the wiki used in EDUC 762 can be found at
http://www.seedwiki.com/wiki/uofw_assessment_course/uofw_assessment_course?t&usermessage=&CFID=3621561&CFTOKEN=91691100&jsessionid=c2302632751164473998329
As a part of the requirements for EDUC 760 E Learning For Educators, the first class in the Graduate Certificate Program in Online Learning and Teaching I began a wiki - E Learning for Educators. My experience with this wiki reflected the following:
1. The dynamic nature of a wiki
2. The initial period of a wiki - great solitude. This is similar to blogging
3. The tremendous flexibility of wiki
4. Specific application as a documentation for a portfolio
5. An entry point for access to other relevant sites
Beyond these uses I do see potential applications for my students:
1. Authentic writing opportunities
2. Bring both authenticity, connectiveness (see paper below) and continuity to learning
3. Collaboration
4. Increased activity and ownership of learning (Scroll down on this link to see a list of courses using wiki)
"Where I’d like to see connectivism go is in the direction of personalized learning environments, or perhaps what Siemens calls “learning ecologies”. However, I’d like to take that idea in the K-12 realm to be a PLE that would follow the student through school, and then beyond. I think we can take existing technologies that build social relationships and harness these for learning AND instruction….
This is a great little paper on some of the changes organizations who need deal with training or education are facing due to the explosion of connectivism in society. George Siemens presented this “white paper” recently at the Google Developers Conference."
The full white paper
Greg@Az
YouTube short views on wiki
This short video makes a great reference to Mob Intelligence. I immediately thought of a book I highly recommend - The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki
Contrast the above YouTube view of wiki with the one below.
Results of the Module 2 - Interactive Inventory
Module 2 in EDUC 762 had the following activity:
This interactive inventory will not only allow you to compare student and teacher-centered courses, but it is an assessment example of a reusable learning object survey. Please save the results of your assessment to place in your blog.
Below see the results from this self survey - I used a print screen to capture and insert. This is not a great way to "see" my results, but you have all taken the survey so you have a sense for what you are looking at.
My comments sent to Datta Kaur
Assessment: Teacher-centered or Learner-centered?
This was a very, very useful survey and an engaging way to interact with the material and assess my personal view of teaching and learning.
Greg@Az
Clearly not the best action so
This interactive inventory will not only allow you to compare student and teacher-centered courses, but it is an assessment example of a reusable learning object survey. Please save the results of your assessment to place in your blog.
Below see the results from this self survey - I used a print screen to capture and insert. This is not a great way to "see" my results, but you have all taken the survey so you have a sense for what you are looking at.
My comments sent to Datta Kaur
Assessment: Teacher-centered or Learner-centered?
This was a very, very useful survey and an engaging way to interact with the material and assess my personal view of teaching and learning.
Greg@Az
Clearly not the best action so
Friday, January 18, 2008
Module 2
Pair-Share Activity - from UofW Stout online class
The post below is a response to an assignment in EDUC 762 Assessment in Learning, a graduate class in offered by UofW Stout in the Graduate Certificate in E-Learning and Online Teaching.
That assignment:
After you have created your blog, copy/paste last week’s partner interview (your own story), and your notes from the Module Two reading interactive inventory into your blog. Additionally you can add images, a link to the course wiki, readings and any other activity or assessment choices that you acquire here.
Below is the partner interview I completed with my classmate Nishele.
Hi everyone:
That assignment:
After you have created your blog, copy/paste last week’s partner interview (your own story), and your notes from the Module Two reading interactive inventory into your blog. Additionally you can add images, a link to the course wiki, readings and any other activity or assessment choices that you acquire here.
Below is the partner interview I completed with my classmate Nishele.
Hi everyone:
Nishele and Greg here saying hello. We are both looking forward to a productive learning experience over the next weeks with all of you.
http://www.uwlax.edu/faculty/lenards/
Nishele has a wonderful sense of humor - check her profile for her most memorable learning experience. She and Greg share the following:
Both born in Ohio
Both have 2 children at home
Both enjoy scrapbooking
Both are involved in higher education
http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/~gpratt/
Greg and Nishele spent the time before the formal beginning of our class on Jan. 14 completing the pair share activity that is the basis for this discussion post. This reflects another commonality between us-we are both type A personalities. Below is an excerpt from one of our e mail exchanges written by Greg to Nishele:
"With your background in online learning and teaching you know the costs and benefits (see subtle economics at work) of online education. As type A personalities we thrive in the online world. As you have found I am certain, the challenge is to assist those who are deadline junkies or how do not have a formal organization for their learning or lives. Those who live in the chaos of the real world and lack the internal mechanisms to self regulate and schedule often get left behind in online environments . . . unless those online worlds are facebook or second life.
Well, as you can tell, I love to talk so . . . I'll leave you alone.
I think we have "processed" this activity and can move on to the discussion forum.
Nishele great to meet you and I actually like this activity - while I am not certain it would work with my online students - freshman and women in college, I do think it has great potential for participants in professional development or graduate programs.
Look forward to working with you in the cyberspace of this class community."
Nishele and I look forward to your comments about this pair-share activity and your evaluation of the costs and benefits of this type of community building activity.
Greg@Az and Nishele@Wisconsin
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Reflective Journal 7
Our module this week provided a welcome change (slowing) of the pace. As I am concurrently engaged in a second class - EDUC 761 the timing has been perfect.
I am finalizing my final project I am reflecting first what a wonderfully comprehensive activity this is and second how useful this will be to improve assessment in my online courses.
My classmates also reacted favorably, I think, to this pace. As the drafts of the final project appeared I was very impressed with the work we have done in analyzing and then applying that analysis of assessment tools to our online courses or projected online courses.
I am finalizing my final project I am reflecting first what a wonderfully comprehensive activity this is and second how useful this will be to improve assessment in my online courses.
My classmates also reacted favorably, I think, to this pace. As the drafts of the final project appeared I was very impressed with the work we have done in analyzing and then applying that analysis of assessment tools to our online courses or projected online courses.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Reflective Journal 6
Module 6 - this week my reflection will focus on the readings. Outstanding set of ideas and I found I connected with these 3 readings.
Cybercoaching - this was wonderful, although I did skip the material at the end of the article, it seemed to focus on writing.
Ok, the components of the model - cyberspace + coaching = cybercoaching was a great way to illustrate a process that I have intuitively been moving toward. I love the feedback model, the notion that as a facilitator I can intervene (formatively assess and realign) my students to help them achieve their goals within the constraints of the learning environment.
The key point raised about cyber (3) was the relationship that encourages a two way feedback mechanism. This ZPD concept really makes sense, not only for exercise science, or languages but economics.
Interestingly page 5 ended with a difference in perception between faculty and students on the promptness of the feedback, in a 2004 study. This is not surprising given the gulf that I have seen between points of view in the profession and our students, and the profession can well be as biased as our students.
The Harmonic Feedback Look was a great way to integrate the complex components of instruction in a way that makes sense and relates to the coaching model.
I also found the Datta Kaur, 2001 paper to be very relevant. Her survey of the literature was very, very well done and the Rheingold description of virtual learning communities was dead on when he wrote of successful online communities:
1. Possessing a sprint of group creative, experimentation, exploration, and goodwill.
2. Authentic conversation - from the heat, the heart and the gut.
3. A gift economy for knowledge-sharing.
On page 10 of Datta Kaur I alsom related to "real -time community"
1. net-gener
2. facilitator
3. excitement and possibilites
Page 16 - "Similar to a host of a party, the optinal online teacher invites you into his/her 'home' shaing . . . personal views and values. . . "
The Brandon article was very relevant to my instructional design course and the list of url references was excellent.
Cybercoaching - this was wonderful, although I did skip the material at the end of the article, it seemed to focus on writing.
Ok, the components of the model - cyberspace + coaching = cybercoaching was a great way to illustrate a process that I have intuitively been moving toward. I love the feedback model, the notion that as a facilitator I can intervene (formatively assess and realign) my students to help them achieve their goals within the constraints of the learning environment.
The key point raised about cyber (3) was the relationship that encourages a two way feedback mechanism. This ZPD concept really makes sense, not only for exercise science, or languages but economics.
Interestingly page 5 ended with a difference in perception between faculty and students on the promptness of the feedback, in a 2004 study. This is not surprising given the gulf that I have seen between points of view in the profession and our students, and the profession can well be as biased as our students.
The Harmonic Feedback Look was a great way to integrate the complex components of instruction in a way that makes sense and relates to the coaching model.
I also found the Datta Kaur, 2001 paper to be very relevant. Her survey of the literature was very, very well done and the Rheingold description of virtual learning communities was dead on when he wrote of successful online communities:
1. Possessing a sprint of group creative, experimentation, exploration, and goodwill.
2. Authentic conversation - from the heat, the heart and the gut.
3. A gift economy for knowledge-sharing.
On page 10 of Datta Kaur I alsom related to "real -time community"
1. net-gener
2. facilitator
3. excitement and possibilites
Page 16 - "Similar to a host of a party, the optinal online teacher invites you into his/her 'home' shaing . . . personal views and values. . . "
The Brandon article was very relevant to my instructional design course and the list of url references was excellent.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Reflective Journal 5
This post is a reflection of my work in both EDUC 762 - Online Assessment and EDUC 761 - Collaborative Communities.
A great week. The two applied activities in EDUC 762 Online Assessment were outstanding and I will certainly incorporate both into my online instruction. Our small group module 2 over in collaborating communities was also a wonderful way to experience a technique that might well facilitate online community building. In a wonderful way, these two classes are complimentary and are synergistic. (I hope that this syntax and structure is appropriate. As this is an open blob, if you are a Noam Chomsky fan [I am not] feel free to correct or clarify)
My EDUC 762 activity involved a participant/student evaluation and revision of the final project rubric. This was fantastic. I was very interested in the reaction of my classmates to both the post I made over in the class course site. I suspect that, as the semester winds down, they are feeling pressure and stress.
I find that, acting as a student in a class like this, I am able to more identify with the pressures and confusion that my students may experience.
The analysis of Bloom's taxonomy informed my thinking about the topics I was reading about in both classes. In particular, the notion that level of taxonomy can affect both authenticity and act as a cost to "cheating" and a benefit to "not cheating" is one I will need to continue to reflect on. In fact, the complexity of the connections between Bloom, "cheating", online community building and authenticity are compel me to follow my classmate Bill Demory in remaining humble and seeking further development.
I continue to be amazed at the discussions in my two classes and the way that they are intersecting.
For example, a classmate over in EDUC 761 wrote this week
I certainly feel at a disadvantage in the beginning of an online course. I usually refer back to the Introductions frequently at first and I try to interact with two to three people a day. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm sure open to them
I responded
I find myself in the same position you describe . . . for the first week or so. Then I can associate the tone and texture of the discussion postings with my classmates. If you think about our class, classmate A's postings are distinctive and unique and very different from, say classmate Bs postings. Instructor X's approach to posting is much different from Instructor Y, at least to my ear in terms of tone and approach.
Having said that, I have found that in wiki discussion threads or in other platforms such as moodle or VoiceThread, the poster's picture appears next to the post or reply.
This is very, very helpful - although it raises other issues, which are currently being discussed by a number of us offline now. Further information about this issue or a platform for you to post your own thoughts is over on the public blog
E Learning for Educators
(note the shameless effort to promote public discussion over here)
I think that the exchange above (another shameless act - imitation of the format of two books on online learning by Pratt/Palloff and Lehmann) is significant as we all consider the issues of authenticity, diversity, our own teaching style and online community building.
A great week. The two applied activities in EDUC 762 Online Assessment were outstanding and I will certainly incorporate both into my online instruction. Our small group module 2 over in collaborating communities was also a wonderful way to experience a technique that might well facilitate online community building. In a wonderful way, these two classes are complimentary and are synergistic. (I hope that this syntax and structure is appropriate. As this is an open blob, if you are a Noam Chomsky fan [I am not] feel free to correct or clarify)
My EDUC 762 activity involved a participant/student evaluation and revision of the final project rubric. This was fantastic. I was very interested in the reaction of my classmates to both the post I made over in the class course site. I suspect that, as the semester winds down, they are feeling pressure and stress.
I find that, acting as a student in a class like this, I am able to more identify with the pressures and confusion that my students may experience.
The analysis of Bloom's taxonomy informed my thinking about the topics I was reading about in both classes. In particular, the notion that level of taxonomy can affect both authenticity and act as a cost to "cheating" and a benefit to "not cheating" is one I will need to continue to reflect on. In fact, the complexity of the connections between Bloom, "cheating", online community building and authenticity are compel me to follow my classmate Bill Demory in remaining humble and seeking further development.
I continue to be amazed at the discussions in my two classes and the way that they are intersecting.
For example, a classmate over in EDUC 761 wrote this week
I certainly feel at a disadvantage in the beginning of an online course. I usually refer back to the Introductions frequently at first and I try to interact with two to three people a day. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm sure open to them
I responded
I find myself in the same position you describe . . . for the first week or so. Then I can associate the tone and texture of the discussion postings with my classmates. If you think about our class, classmate A's postings are distinctive and unique and very different from, say classmate Bs postings. Instructor X's approach to posting is much different from Instructor Y, at least to my ear in terms of tone and approach.
Having said that, I have found that in wiki discussion threads or in other platforms such as moodle or VoiceThread, the poster's picture appears next to the post or reply.
This is very, very helpful - although it raises other issues, which are currently being discussed by a number of us offline now. Further information about this issue or a platform for you to post your own thoughts is over on the public blog
E Learning for Educators
(note the shameless effort to promote public discussion over here)
I think that the exchange above (another shameless act - imitation of the format of two books on online learning by Pratt/Palloff and Lehmann) is significant as we all consider the issues of authenticity, diversity, our own teaching style and online community building.
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