Post 5-Reflection: The Wiki at Work and Website Designs

This week I was not satisfied with my post as I was focused on my students’ learning more than my own. I was particularly anxious to their reception of the class Wiki. With great anticipation and enthusiasm, we went to the computer lab. As some students were quite familiar with this tech tool, they signed on rather quickly and assisted those who needed more help. I then asked them to post their favorite paragraph and to respond to one other student in the class. This was done fairly smoothly as we would announce during our “eureka” moments, who we found, and what we managed to accomplish. There were a lot of laughs, a few kinks but addressed, and some realizations. After the lab session swiftly ended, I felt as a class we had bonded even more. In honesty, I discussed my naivety and sought out assistance from them as well as patience and cooperation. They were extremely accommodating and enjoyed viewing the teacher in a ‘lower’ position rather than the holder of all knowledge. I share with them my own frustrations and learning process and this creates a trust. For that reason, I welcomed the Wiki along with all the Web 2.0 tools I managed to imbed, such as, a PowerPoint presentation on how to create one, (thanks to Brittanie for her innovative creation) YouTube video on “Education and Technology”, (Who knows why this can’t be accessed from our 613 class wiki because I have double- clicked on the video-tube and it opens), pdf files, photos and more. I also liked the fact that the students could view my reflection on revisions for 613. They were quite curious to see my writing and thoughts; some students even responded. We were all enjoying this medium and the multi modal functions and uses it provides can be productive towards their own thinking and learning process.

I also was enthusiastic when I was able to project a few paragraphs from a student’s paper onto a large screen in the classroom. Together we looked at all the positive aspects we liked and then began shaping it to make the language flow or to elaborate on a kernel idea or to reorganize the development more coherently and logically. As the students were critiquing, our tutor was making the changes instantly for everyone to see, read aloud and hear the difference. This was amazing! The students were so attentive and the more we revised, the better their advice. Even some of the shy students wanted their papers on the screen so that they could see their work in order to hear the reviews. Of course, we all enjoy positive criticism and we gently remark on ways to improve the writing by starting out with a “what if” question.