Final Course Reflection #7.

What are your suggestions for improving the design of this course?

First, present more information and guidelines for collaboration. Maybe that could be the coursework for the first week. Let everyone research or read articles about collaboration and respond to a prompt or question in the discussion area. If everyone has input they might "buy into" it more and have a chance to better understand the expectations. Once the roles are clear let the class members choose roles for the different chapters but require that everyone experience each role once. Think of an alternate activity to replace the quizzes or at least revise the roles a little so the editor isn't using a scoring guide he/she didn't create. Maybe there should just be a general guide for everyone to use.

I think all the topics we covered were important but I would have liked to have spent more time on the technology topics in chapter 8. I wasn't very familiar with some of them so I would have liked more information or activities with them. Finally, I think the course needs to incorporate more constructivist methods than just the wiki writing. The wiki writing was a great learning experience but I think it would have been even more beneficial to participate in or plan activities involving other constructivist methods.

Final Course Reflection #6

Please comment about building quizzes and answer keys, and on grading your peers.

I really feel that the quizzes were a traditional rather than a constructivist based assessment. I would have preferred doing other activities rather than taking quizzes. My first role was as editor but since we didn't have a quiz builder I didn't have quizzes to grade. So I really didn't experience grading my peers except on the 4 objective questions for chapter 8. When I was the quiz builder on a previous chapter we didn't have an author but I was very pleased with the alternative way we devised for the class members to take the quiz. At that point though there was confusion grading quizzes because the scoring guide wasn't posted for everyone to know how the answers were being graded. Once the scoring guide/rubric was posted with the quiz questions I think it was easier for everyone to know what the expectations were. Also, I think it was hard for the editor to grade quizzes from a rubric/scoring guide he/she didn't create.

Final Course Reflection #5

As a result of your experience in this class, are you more likely or less likely to assign collaborative wiki writing assignments in your teaching situation?

I really don't think the 6th-8th grade students I work with are ready for writing for a wiki. They would need more preparation for this type of collaborative work because they prefer projects that involve multimedia tools and resources. I will recommend collaborative wiki writing to our district gifted teacher because it would be a great venue for her students to publish their research for an authentic audience.

Final Course Reflection #4

Please compare the experience of doing research and authoring a textbook for a class (like this one) versus the traditional way of reading and studying and assigned textbook for a class

Since I love to research, I really enjoyed reading and learning about constructivism on my own. While doing research I was able to "veer off the path" and investigate related ideas or topics so I really did construct my own knowledge. I wouldn't have been able to do that by reading and studying an assigned textbook. I was also very aware of organization, deadlines and the quality of my writing since my peers and any Internet user could read my work. On the other hand though by reading the other class members' chapters and taking the quizzes I felt like I was still reading an "assigned textbook".

Final Course Reflection #3

Please comment on your experience of others observing and/or critiquing your writing in the WikiBook.

I really didn't experience any problems with class members observing or critiquing my writing There didn't seem to be anyone else editing my work once it was posted in the wiki.

Final Course Reflection #2

Please evaluate the emphasis on collaboration in writing the WikiBook chapters.

I really enjoyed learning how to use the Google docs sandbox. It was definitely a progressive learning experience as the first time when we just pasted information in it and then we developed better ways to organize the information. Using the sandbox really helped to write the chapter and it was a great way to collaborate note-taking. Having organized and conscientious group members made the collaboration process easy and rewarding

My frustration with the collaboration process was that I only had one active partner for each chapter I was assigned. I never experienced working in a group of three. It was questionable up until the deadline (or after) if the third person was going to participate. For the first chapter I worked on there wasn't a quiz builder, for the second there wasn't an author and for the third there wasn't a quiz builder. So by having one missing member the other two member couldn't fully fulfill their roles. There needs to be a way for the instructors to know as soon as someone drops a class or at least make it clear from the beginning to inform the instructor if they can't participate.

Final Course Reflection #1

Please describe your overall experience in this course?

I really learned a lot about constructivism this semester especially through researching for my chapters. I find myself referring back to constructivist principles as I work with teachers now on planning research projects. I feel like the only real constructivist method was the collaborative research and writing used for the wiki chapters. I would have liked to have used and experienced methods other than the wiki.