The biggest snow storm of the 2013-2014 winter season is upon us! Since my husband is a 'prepper,' I have been prepared for days...actually months...for this storm. No need for a grocery run or a stop at Home Depot for de-icers or generators (we have four). Rather, I spent my Tuesday wondering what to do about face to face ITS class on Wednesday. Reports indicated snow would most likely start around 7 or 8pm in our area so it was possible to still have class for a few hours. I knew that a decision for Mason to cancel classes was probably not likely or would happen after ITSers had left to come to Mason in Loudoun. And I had been down this road before (or actually NOT down the road, but stuck in my car) in 2011 Carmaggedon. Forecasting weather is difficult in this area as is any predication about the traffic. Is it worth the worry about storms and traffic when this entire 5th semester is dedicated to the study of Web 2.0 tools? Why not put these tools to the test?
In Week 4, we focus on Wikis: Can wikis support robust collaborations and project work with virtual groups? We know it works over the week between classes. But what happens when a 5 hour f2f is moved online and students are expected to be available to work on a group project and expected to turn in a number of deliverables by the end of class? How does an instructor judge participation? What can a student do to ensure they are seen? What issues or concerns are associated with using a wiki in a virtual class?
Share your 'snow day with Wikis' experience by commenting.
11 comments:
After starting the night, but thinking 'should I steal the lock from someone'.. I decided I have 5 hours to get this show on the road. I waited patiently to add my thoughts onto the Ontherun site and hoped that the person before me didn't take any of my thoughts. It's difficult to judge if you've put in enough effort when you're doing an online class. I emailed my group members and we are on a roll with piecing together information that is needed before the end of the class tonight. I believe that like anything that is done with the internet, it'll take time to get comfortable with it, but in the end everything always seems to fall into place. BUT we will truly find out in 4 more hours :)
I found it easy to get onto the OntheRun site and input information onto the wiki about wikis. I didn't realize that everyone had the ability to lock the wiki before I could save what I had entered. Somehow, the information I had typed in saved before this happened. I think the lock feature is a challenge when many people are trying to put information on the wiki at the same time.
I was able to discuss with my group and we were able to work on our briefing paper, at the same time, using google hangout. We were able to edit our advocacy wiki because it was already published online. It was really convenient to have our wikis up and running because we could not be together.
Honestly, I found the transition from our traditional class to using the online wikis at home to be quite effortless. I started working around 5 and have been working since, with a break to get some dinner -- very much the same as what I would do in class. My mom called, and interestingly enough, she shared news that schools in my hometown in WV were trying to decide if they should implement some sort of online assignments for students to complete on snow days because they have missed so much school. Clearly, online learning is spreading to even the most remote areas of the country. Very cool in my opinion.
I think wikis are able to support "robust collaborations and project work within groups," but it just requires a little planning and strategy. The lock out is pretty annoying if you want to work on the actual site and if you are supposed to working on it during a specific window of time (tonight), but external sites let you complete your work and then post it in for formatting if you really want to collaborate.
The lockout does a great job of keeping people from overlapping thoughts and adjusting too much simultaneously, but I guess it just depends on what you hope to accomplish. It helped that tonight our advocacy group was working on products that just needed to be loaded or copied in. If we had to design the site and prepare pages, then we would really have to take the extra time to sync similar texts and color schemes on separate pages or some other sort of plan.
I really was excited about the chance to have class virtually tonight. I think the structure of the class and the true purpose of the class lend themselves well to how tonight turned out.
My group was able to work in a google hangout and figure out our advocacy group details. Since I was so focused on that, I didn't take the time to work on the OntheRun wiki. Every time I seemed to check the page, someone was working on it or had it locked. I'm sure at this point in the night, I'll be able to add detail. Just hoping I can add enough content that hasn't already been added!
Last week was the first time that my Leadership team chose to use a Wiki to collaborate and complete the Top Ten assignment. I found that it was much easier and much more effective than the traditional black board discussion forums. It was a much more effective and easy way to see everyone's suggestions without having to open up multiple threads. We only have 4 people in our group, so we did not run into any issues with multiple people trying to edit and type their responses at the same time.
One concern I had with virtual class today, was about availability of the wiki. When I saw today that we were being asked to get onto the OntheRun wiki, I thought that I better get on quick before there is a rush of student participation to ensure I was able to access it. I feel that there could be an issue if multiple people are trying to edit and add information at the same time, since only one person can access a wiki at a time.
Students can ensure to be seen by making sure they open the wiki and edit. When you edit the administrator is able to see who made changes and what changes you made. This allows for the teacher to see who was active and present. Also by having students respond to this Blog, the teacher is able to ensure all students participate and reflect on wikis.
Yesterday, I assigned a boat-load of homework to my Honors English students. We've missed so much time with them already (we changed classes at the semester mark; we're already halfway through their first quarter, and I think I've seen them maybe 8 times total?) I make myself available by email, but I'm thinking a Wiki might be really useful. There would normally be a good deal of discussion about the short stories we're reading, and I'm having to bypass a good bit of that to try to stay remotely on track. A Wiki would be a great way to still enable discussion and ask and answer question. And, even more students might be willing to participate online over speaking in class. The issues I could see involve not everyone having access and, in a situation like snow days, requiring participation by all.
The time that I have spent working within Wikis has been uneventful and without problems. The first time I used it was with my leadership group on blackboard where we worked in a wiki to complete the top 10. In blackboard I can see where it would be a problem to not know who was posting what, so when I added my tops to the list also made sure I added them in a thread in the discussion group as well so everyone would know whose ideas they were, just show that I had added my parts in. When working in the other wikis that we have used, you can see who has been in and who has added or edited something. I think that this kind of wiki is great to know who it participating and who might not be contributing.
A concern that could come up with using a wiki in a virtual class is that a person can be the first to post get everything done and never look back. There is not a block of time that is being expected from students and if they are the first to post and never look back then they are not getting the information from their fellow students and would not have learned anything from the class. I don’t think that is so much an issue for the ITS program students but for a other educational areas it could be, and then the whole purpose of the lesson could be lost. Something that could be done to resolve this is to have student have to post on the wiki two different times and have the time frames have an closure date before the next open posting date, like we have for the itsopedia page.
I think the virtual classroom is a wonderful idea. However, I must state the idea is assuming that all students have access to a computer. Secondly, the ideas assume all students are familiar with the etiquette of online collaboration. Third we should never overlook some students are uncomfortable asking questions in way that does not provide immediate response. Other than those concerns, I would definitely see how using Wikis on snow days would be a great use of the technology. Students can collaborate in real time. They can see what and how their peers respond to questions. Next, Wikis provide evidence of student learning. Teachers have the affordance of being able to track student’s participation by the amount of time spent online or by the number of responses to an assignment. Finally, teachers and administrators would not feel guilty of students having too many free days.
I must admit that I was not very familiar with wikis prior to this semester in ITIS. I was even a bit skeptical when we recieved the ITSOPedia assignment. After using the tool quite a bit and learning the affordances of it though I must share that I am quite fond of this tool now. When the storm hit and we were assigned to post on the wiki I was estatic. I enjoy that everyone can see who has posted, editted, and added what and at what time so that there is never any group annomisity for "slacker" group members. When one can visually see what others are posting and when I think it strengthens group cohesiveness. I also enjoy how one can post files, work on various pages, and create a collaborative site and feel like a knowledgable contributor. I've been able to use this tool with my advocacy group with much ease and do prefer it to Blackboard, for as Madison pointed out you don't have to have several threads open at once to access what you want to see and work onin the wiki.
I think the transition from a face to face class to online was smooth. We have had time to play around and experiment with wikis. In addition, our advocacy group had a plan of action based on our master schedule. Using Google docs and email my group had been talking about what we were going to do in Thursday's class throughout the week. When we found out the class had changed to online it was easy for us to continue with our plan virtually. It was a great experience.
Post a Comment