SumranBhan

toc =Analysis and Reflection=

Questions Part One:
1) What do you think/feel about this collaborative learning environment?

I have never been part of a collaborative learning environment before. The closest I have come is using Blogger last year for CCT300. I feel a little weary about this type of an environment. Although it is a great place to learn new things and build on the class knowledge, it really seems to lack that critical rhetoric that is necessary to understand something. It seems like it is mostly due to the fact that on a Wiki you are anonomous and thus nobody has to answer your questions or ask you questions.

2) What are your expectations for yourself ?

I expect that I will contribute to the wiki. I wish I could have a greater role in its mantainance but because of my lack of previous experience, I doubt I can be of help here. I hope to become more active as the semester progresses and as I learn more about wiki learning.

3) If you have previously used wiki in another course, then describe what you have previously learned and how you want expand your understanding?

I haven't used a wiki before. I am using one right now in another course. It is an interesting environment because I get to keep in touch with the course outside the classroom. I am learning how to help other students and be helped in return. In my other course though, the wiki is more of a organized FAQ. We help eachother with course content and technical issues. I hope to exand my content collaboration in this wiki.

**Questions Part Two:**
1) How do you choose which postings to contribute or change?

I base my decision of changing or adding something to the wiki based on my own knowledge. I know a more constructive way would be to choose something I knew little about and then research and add to it but on a wiki of this size, that is too difficult. I can't honestly say I even read all the pages so I go to the ones that I already am a little familiar with and change, edit or add to those.

2) What are your thoughts on adding, editing or re-arranging other people's work?

I feel bad about changing someone's work if they have put their name on it. When I see a name, I don't just look at the ideas and concepts. Instead I think about the person's opinions, assumptions, context and perspective. That makes it harder to edit information. Luckily there usually aren't names on wikis and I can make edits pretty freely. I think it is hard to edit someones framework or theory because there is a lot of evidence required in that. With wikis, because they are information based instead of theory based, editing is a lot easier.

3) Do you regularly check your own postings for alterations? Has anyone changed your work and how have you felt about it?

I don't check for updates on my posts regularily. If I go back to add something, I usually re-read it and if it still makes sense and sounds good I don't check to see who made the edits. Usually I won't even remember if something was a thought of mone or not. If the words on that page make sense to me, I don't care about who made edits.

Questions Part Three:
1) Have your views changed in regards to collaborative learning while participating in this wiki?

Yes and no. I still think collaborative environments have great potential as learning tools but they can only supplement the process of learning. I have come to realize that the internet is not a media that people associate with critical analysis and scholarly thinking. When you ask people to post something, especially in an informal environment such as this one, they tend to do it in a more casual tone.

I have changed my mind about questioning though. People are a lot more secure in asking questions when they can stay anonomous. One thing that the wiki does do very well is generate questions. Your questions will probably even be answered however you can't always trust the answers. Sometimes you want the answers to have authority behind them which you will only recognize when you know the author. In larger wikis, this problm gets resolved due to their size. With mllions of people constantly editing information, you can be assured that inaccurate information will be deleted or chaged.

2)Are there any ideas, suggestions or comments you could share for possible improvements?

The wiki really does not work for this class for the simple fact that a wiki is the attention economy at its finest. Where there is not interest, there will be no traffic and development. In a course that discusses ideas that aren't mainstream or inherently very interesting people will be more reluctant to post regularly.

From what I can see, the wiki works much better in CCT300 becuase people are interested in pop culture. They will visit, read, edit the pages even recreationally. On the other hand, people post on this wiki because they get marks for it.

This class would benifit more from a discussion based forum. A place where students can ask questions and discuss ideas related to this topic. That would create a form much more condusive to collaborative learning. With the wiki we are colaboratively building information. There is not learning. The process of asking a question, learning and understanding the position of others and discussing is lost. Where there would be a good chance of debate and eventual learning, there is only an opportunity for erasing and editing.

3)Things you thought were most productive or helpful about using wiki?

The test section was the only thing that I found helpful and productive about this wiki. I could use the information from that section and apply it to my learning in class. I honestly didn't actively look at the other sections. I don't have the attention span (especially on the internet) to read a 700 word PACT analysis of a door handle. I looked at the pages and usually read the first paragraph.

Edits
1) I created a page in Heuristic Evaluation in the field of Human-Computer Interaction. It is about the technique used to evaluate the uasbility of user interfaces in computer software and webpages.

2)Changed the format of the homepage. It was too cluttered and disorganized. I formatted the page, put some information on other pages, deleted some information and added a table of contents.

3) Created a page for News and Announcements


 * I'm sorry this entry is late but wikispaces crashed and would not let me on*