Angela+Cheah

=Contributions:=

> **September 22:** > **September 27:** > **October 6:** > **October 25**: > **November 7:** > **November 13:** > > **November 22:**
 * Norman, Donald A.: Added section to post about his book "The Design of Everyday things" and created a link to another page
 * User-Centered Design (UCD): started post about topic; links and content
 * Table of Contents: community building- added links to new pages
 * Usability:created new post about topic; links and content
 * Human Computer Interatcion (HCI)**:** started post about topic; links and content
 * Analysis & Reflection: posted first wiki reflection
 * World Wide Web: start topic post; links and content
 * Web 2 and World Wide Web: comunity building; added links etc...
 * Analysis & Reflection: added second reflection
 * iPod Nanos: added a section on iTune and iTunes Store, added links and pictures
 * iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle: community building- added links and pictures
 * Website Design: added content and links
 * Multimedia: started post- put content

= =

= = =Reflections:=

1. October 6
Previously in the CCT 205 Wikispace, I was very intimidated by the concept. I’ve never been very comfortable sharing my work/ideas with others afraid of overly negative criticisms. After the experience though, I found myself being a lot more comfortable. Everyone was very collaborative and positive with one another. It was also very beneficial in many ways as well. There were very kind students posting chapter notes from the textbook or notes from class. This definitely helped with the studying process for exams/tests. In addition, you get a broader idea and more understanding of concepts and theories taught in class. I also attempted to avoid being a last minute poster in order to ensure myself valuable and concrete posts. I didn’t want to have a series of posts that were insignificant with a lack of quality. I hope to be able to contribute more and better than I did previously especially with the knowledge and background I have now. Furthermore, I don’t find that navigating or building of the site to be very difficult. It was not too complex that even when I was a new user I was able to put new postings, make edits, add links and pictures etc… with ease. So far this year, I’ve done a few posts and go on as much as I can to read other’s posts. It did start off a bit slow with very few posts up until about this week. It was probably largely due to the fact that people were unsure of what to post. For me I found it difficult at first to find course related topics I could write about and write about with quality. Sometimes when people posted just a page with a topic or one or two sentences I found it helpful because I could build on that. I did feel bad though because I didn’t want to take other students’ ideas. That also worried me a little. I’m sure everyone was slightly skeptical in sharing their ideas prior to posting because they didn’t want their ideas being taken. Despite the slow start to this wiki, I think by the next week or two it will really get going and there will be some serious site building. Overall I find it’s a great way to get students to communicate with one another and help each other. I like the fact that we have a FAQ section. I can see the other concerns of students and either post my own or find answers to them there. I’ve been able to take away valuable knowledge and now have a new reference point for future essays, tests, or general questions. Having this as part of many courses is helpful, but I also do find it to be time consuming and difficult to constantly maintain. As oppose to having it be such a major part of the course, I feel that it should be lightly weighted especially when you have to do it for more than one course.

2. November 13
Whenever I find time I log onto the wikispace. During breaks between classes or perhaps before I go to bed, I try to log onto the wikispace. Most of my edits and contribution ideas come from the recent changes or the table of contents. I go through the list of recent changes and as many links that interest me on the table of contents. From there I will pick topics I either know well about or have some idea of what it is. I then do research for it and if I can find new and relevant information about the topic I will make edits to a posting. As well, I will fidn related topics to postings in order to start my own. I find it easier to build off another topic than think up of one yourself. As well, if I know that I can find pictures or create links to a post I will do the edits for that page. Majority of the time, pages with the least amount of content are the ones I edit because it usually allows me to add more relevant edits to it. Everytime I log onto the wikispace I check my postings. I like to know who edited my post and do this just to see what I had missed or if someone completely erased my work. Edits/changes and contributions have been made to my posts, but nothing that hasn't been constructive. People have respected my work and therefore I don’t mind people changing my work. I feel if I can respect you and your postings you should do the same for me. When I go to someone else’s posting I ensure that I keep as much of their original work and only add things that are necessary or nice to have. I also strongly believe that only relevant edits should be made so if you have nothing worthwhile to add then simply don't. It is an iterative project so adding, editing, and re-arranging is necessary and of course going to happen. Though, I do find that more and more people are posting irrelevant and useless posts although I haven’t had any problems with people deleting or making inappropriate edits so I have no complaints about that. A lot of the times I find that the edits people make are great. How else can we learn more and cooperate as a team/class.

My views haven’t really changed about collaborative learning through participation in the wiki. I still find it to be very useful and helpful. It’s a great way for students to connect with one another and a great place to get much needed information or help (especially with exams and assignments). For me personally, I used it for help with the first assignment and the exam. I also met people in the class and created study groups through the site. There were even topics that I had no knowledge of prior to reading it on the wikispace so it has helped to broaden my knowledge. It’s also an excellent form of communication for teachers and students alike. I also felt that I did do better this time round than before. My postings were relevant along with my community building (though I did notice I didn't do too much of it). I was also a bit better is making sure that I did postings more frequently and spread out (not leaving it to the last minute).
 * 3. December 6**

I also think that reinforcement on plagiarism was required (though now there’s a wonderful note posted on the home page). People were using previous years or other class postings and just copying and pasting. Paraphrasing isn’t that difficult. As well, the other people who contributed to the original post gets no credit at all. Another aspect that needs to be emphasized is irrelevant postings. I find that a load of crap is posted on the wiki. There is more useful content than nonsense, but if the post doesn’t relate to the course it shouldn’t be made at all. People view it as only about quantity and not quality so they post anything that they have mediocre knowledge about thinking their marks will be better because they have 200 posts instead of 50. People should not be upset if posts were changed or parts were deleted because they plagiarized or put irrelevant posts up. As well, if someone added a contribution to a page that was completely off topic, they shouldn’t be upset if someone deletes it (why keep blatantly obvious irrelevant information on?).

The editing tool also requires some fixing though I know we can’t really do anything about it (it’s up to the wikispace maintenance guys). But I find it difficult to make edits as errors continually happen. I can’t bold or unbold when needed, pictures are often not loading properly, embedding certain forms of media can cause problems (Flash documents) and when you save a post sometimes arrows and equal signs appear when they were never added. This is just to name a few.

I did find that the sandbox was helpful though and the links to wikihelp. I used it a few times when I forgot how to do certain things or wanted to learn how to use/do certain things.

Despite the wiki being a collaborative, and therefore shared concept, I find that it may require some form of privacy. Especially when there are loafters. It’s suppose to be collaborative where people help one another, but in many cases only a few people do actual hard work and effort while others just sit back and reap the benefits. Taking that into account I did find that the wikispace was most helpful with exams and essays. Additionally, the FAQ section was also helpful in getting not only responses and help from teachers, but student input as well.

I think for the future a different approach to the class wiki could possibly consist of group work instead of the class as a whole. Perhaps in the beginning of the year the class can be divided into groups and create their own class wiki (kind of like the group projects we did). This allows for more topics to be covered for each individual (since there’s fewer people posting on one site topics are more spread out) and people will be more likely to share their ideas instead of hiding them so they can gain all the credit. People are also forced to contribute and you can still see each other’s work/wikis.

Overall, I didn't enjoy the wiki assignment as much as I had in the past. This is just simply due to the repetitiveness of the project. I do find it to be useful and I even used it in other classes (made a site to gather people's ideas and work for study groups, exams, assignments etc...). I think what I enjoyed most was creating my own wiki because it gave me more control and I enjoyed the fact that it was "my site". There was more flexibility and not too much pressure as well as it gave us more of an idea of the potential the wiki have. We saw more aspects of it this way. I don't think that the wiki should be eliminated from courses because it is a handy tool, but perhaps less emphasis would be better.