I really buy into the whole idea of writing as a process. I think wikis make the write process more essential because multiple revisions take place in a collaborative setting. I think that students almost learn more from making drafts and collaborating than they do from producing a final piece for submission. Often too, students submit their first draft and skip over the whole idea of doing an outline or rough draft.
In reading the article, it makes a lot of sense to me that if wikis are not explained throughly before they are employed that the students would not respond well. I think with any CALL tool the usefulness/purpose/goal of use needs to be explicitly introduced, and the students should be made aware of all the ins and outs before they are set lose. Often, I have found that when students say that they don't like something, it usually means to differing degrees that they don't understand it. Therefore, resistance can be disarmed through education.
Also, I think that students can smell busy work a mile away, so teachers should not assign work involving wikis unless they see salient usefulness towards achieving the end goals of the class. If the instructor is just using the wiki to use the wiki that could be very irritating for students.
A couple of the documents noted that people had accidentally deleted each other's contributions. In blackboard, I know there are settings that prevent content from being deleted, so these settings could help ease any unintentional loss of material.
I personally really like that wikis itemize different contributions so you can see how did what when; I think this feature helps hold students accountable for contributing to the extent that they should be. I also like the idea of using a wiki to write collaborative papers because then students works aren't isolated but rather pieces of the same quilt, and it helps students take a more vested interest in the drafting process of their peers' work.
What do you think about using wikis instead of papers or other group projects?
In reading the article, it makes a lot of sense to me that if wikis are not explained throughly before they are employed that the students would not respond well. I think with any CALL tool the usefulness/purpose/goal of use needs to be explicitly introduced, and the students should be made aware of all the ins and outs before they are set lose. Often, I have found that when students say that they don't like something, it usually means to differing degrees that they don't understand it. Therefore, resistance can be disarmed through education.
Also, I think that students can smell busy work a mile away, so teachers should not assign work involving wikis unless they see salient usefulness towards achieving the end goals of the class. If the instructor is just using the wiki to use the wiki that could be very irritating for students.
A couple of the documents noted that people had accidentally deleted each other's contributions. In blackboard, I know there are settings that prevent content from being deleted, so these settings could help ease any unintentional loss of material.
I personally really like that wikis itemize different contributions so you can see how did what when; I think this feature helps hold students accountable for contributing to the extent that they should be. I also like the idea of using a wiki to write collaborative papers because then students works aren't isolated but rather pieces of the same quilt, and it helps students take a more vested interest in the drafting process of their peers' work.
What do you think about using wikis instead of papers or other group projects?
I absolutely agree with you on the potential "busy work" feel of wikis. As a teacher, I am well aware of when I am assigning busy work, which means I know when it is being assigned to me. Wikis really do need to be frontloaded thoroughly, and that can be time consuming for instructors. If time is available, wikis can be useful. If not, they have the potential to be messy.
ReplyDeleteI think with any CALL tool, it needs to be explicit for why you are using them. You shouldn't just be using them to use them, and the use of the tool should not be counterintuitive to the way it is designed.
ReplyDeleteI am also not a fan of busy work.