Raja,+Noreen

=**Analysis and Reflection**=

Noreen Raja :)

= =

Contributions
October 28th 2006 - Main contribution in creating the Colour page. November 6th 2006 - Began contributions to my group Cajasteiner (won't allow link). November 10th 2006 - Added other Similar Smart Phones to The BlackBerry page. November 10th 2006 - Just bolded the title for PC Pandora. November 10th 2006 - Added four paragraphs to the Interview section of Research Methods. November 23rd 2006 - Added paragraph of the negative drawbacks on Zune December 8th 2006 - Added Section of "New Virtual Keyboard - Will Laptops become Obsolete?: on Virtual Reality December 8th 2006 - Added Section of "Grudin's Eight Challenges for CSCW Developers" on CSCW December 8th 2006 - Added Likert Scale image to Likert Scale

Question 1
This is not my first encounter with Wiki. When first finding out that the class would be working with Wiki again. I was quite excited. I believe Wiki's were a great idea in where groups of people can collaborate with one another in creating the ultimate information source. This new learning environment creates a new social aspect in where everyone can review the history and see what individual has contributed. The only worry I originally had would be that someone who is irresponsible would corrupt the page and perhaps delete everything. However it is a great concept that anyone can restore their page to its previous being before the 'corruptive' alteration with the History tab. I feel a collaborative learning environments allow individuals to explore what others have to contribute in different topics and to learn individuals different interests.

My expectations are to try and keep up with regular participation in collaborating with my peers' topics. I would like to provide more information to different topics and hopefully be able to elaborate on them with reliable sources. I also expect to collaborate with my Redesign team, "Cajasteiner". Our team is currently working on redesigning the cell phone prepaid voucher system and our goal is to either eliminate voice activiation all together,or create a more advanced system that is more human-centered with fewer steps and greater efficiancy.

Again this is not my first encounter in working with Wikispaces. With this experience I hope to contribute much more to fellow peers pages. I would like to contribute everything to editing, adding images, adding paragraphs, table of contents, links and even new and unexplored subtopics. I have gained more knowledge this year in my field of visual communications and I would like to apply my knowledge of concepts and theories to other pages. I would also like to see other peers applying their knowledge or even their interests in my page. I would like to be able to have more flexibilty with the Wikispaces in terms of designing the page, centring or moving graphic text and images as well and different font choices to make page pages more creative. I am currently experimenting with Wiki on my own and using Photoshop to create images and designs to post up. It would also be nice to see a more social aspect to Wiki like perhaps a messaging program or for the editors to put a little something about themselves as oppose to just an avatar.

=Question 2= I particularly like looking at the topics that are perhaps new to me of that I have a lesser knowledge of. When editing these pages, I can allow myself to research not only for the page but for myself. I also enjoy contributing to pages that have a lot to do with the course itself. Seeing as the test will be coming up in no time, looking at my peers pages allows me to gain further and deeper knowledge about the topic at hand and maybe even provide me with diagrams or images that the text book may not have touched on. I also like adding little bits here and there to pages in where I have previous knowledge. In doing so I have more interest in the subject and hand and feel good about providing my own views and knowledge that I have gained throughout my experience here at UofT and Sheridan.

I really enjoy seeing others add on to my page. For example if I couldn't find a good image or the right source, having one of my peers review my page can bring in better information, better images and more knowledge. When editing other pages in this collaborative environment, new ideas and topics can be explored and even have a link with a correlative topic withing the class. When others rearrange my work and edit my work, I can see how others may choose to interpret a topic at hand and my find the way others view a certain subject interesting and different. Wiki allows you to see how others feel about your work. Like they say, you can never edit your own work by yourself, you'll never see it in the eyes of another person and understand how something could sound or even be understook better just by rearranging the word, sentence or phrase. Thus this is a great tool to consider when working with grammer and sentence structures.

I always regularly check my own postings for edits and alterations. I get excited when I see another peer is interested in my page and that has contributed to it. I've have changes to my work don't before and I have gratitude for those who improve my page and make it even better with more information and perhaps even more sources and pictures.

=Question 3= As this is not my first experience with Wiki I wouldn't say that my views have changed in terms of collaborative learning, however, because this is the 2nd and the 3rd experience for me (300 and 333) I find that I have expanded my knowledge on how to participate in Wiki efficiently and how to manage a Wiki space properly. The first time I used Wiki, I made sure that everything was covered in the topic given and that it was so thorough I didn't allow a chance for others to edit. I have now learned that in a collaborative learning environment, there is no need to fear for mistakes and limited resources because your peers are there to help maintain everyone's pages. So I would say that my view hasn't changed about the collaborative learning but in fact has grown to a new sense of experience and knowledge.

I would like to suggest for future reference, if there is any possible way to allow more than one person to edit a page at a time. That would help out a lot due to the fact that in my group experience, we've over ridden previous edits. Having a drop down list of some more fonts would be nice so the wiki wouldn't be so bland and I would like to suggest that there could be a 'Photoshop' like application (not as advanced, perhaps more like Paint) through Wiki that allows the manipulation of images as oppose to just resizing. Since more and more images are being posted up on Wiki, it would provide creative aspect to Wiki and allow students to express themselves and appropriate images.

I think the most productive and helpful aspect of wiki is without a doubt the Floating Tool Bar! It is just such a simple idea that really makes editting more efficient. Not having to scroll all the way to the top of the page and clicking "BOLD" really helps as well as avoids frustration that is not needed. The history bar is very helpful in terms of seeing what others have added or removed or even reverting back to the previous form is wonderful. One time I remember, last year in CCT 205, I added a significant paragraph (with sources) to a person's page... that person for some reason did not like the information and completely erased it. I was quite peeved because I was trying to help with the collaboration and for some reason they did not want that help. So I went to the history bar and just restored my paragraph :)