One of my concerns , however involves the commenting process. Right now the students create and post a Power Point using their wikis. The next step is that I want students to review each other's projects and comment on them on a hard copy of a comment form that I collect later; in other words, they don't see each other's comments yet. I am concerned that when I make the commenting an online, published thing, I will see a lot of, "I agree with what the previous commenter said." Has it been your experience that telling the students that their comments should be unique is enough? Also, any good ideas of how to keep track of these comments besides a simple tally sheet?
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Reflection on exploring blogs and wikis
The most interesting sentence that I read while doing this week's assignments was in the D2L article on blogging, "Blogging can give reticent students and English language learners (ELLs) a safe space to participate confidently." Getting those students to participate more fully in their learning experience has been a desire of mine since I started teaching at a very diverse school. I have already seen the unexpected contributions of some of the quieter students when they used wikis. Collaborative projects work so much better when the group of students has a wiki than when they had to try to meet after school or in a public library.
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I teach online courses and primarily use a discussion board for comments. I can modify the discussion board so that students can't see each others comments until I decide. This way they answer without the influence of reading others' posts and can't just say I agree. I don't know if wikis can be set up to do this. In general, I find that it is a big problem. I do give the students a rubric for their postings and responses. The students learn that an I agree response is a zero. Some never quite get with the program, but most do. I sometimes require a word count, and I assign a variety of response options--individuals pick something specific to comment on so that there are fewer similar answers. If there is enough diversity in the types of postings, there is usually diversity in the comments. I think that you could have them submit their response to you first and then post it to the wiki. Maybe have a due date for the class to send you their response and then allow them to post to the wiki after that? Would love to hear other ideas, as this is a common concern.
ReplyDeleteOh, one other thing...you touch on a very positive aspect of DBs, wikis, etc. The ELLs, shy students, writers vs. talkers, etc. in your class will come out of the woodwork! I've experienced it so many times, even to the extent that students in class can't believe it's the same person online (and yes, it is the same--not someone posting for them, another separate but important issue--you can tell by their "voice"). I've also had colleagues who are extremely shy and have trouble speaking in a group be very eloquent and insightful in online discussions.
ReplyDeleteI see using a blog as a way to get quiet students and students that need more time to put together an answer. Setting up some guidelines and tips for blogging to help students make quality posts may be helpful.
ReplyDeleteGreat stuff! I have also found that students will sometimes just read others' comments to formulate their own comment. I like the use of a simple self assessment that summarizes their thinking behind the comment. Or, have students take the post and comments and write a short summary in their own words on wallwisher.com
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