Quarter three is finally over and so is the huge wiki experiment! Since February, the students in my Media Studies class have been creating their own wikis - as part of a research project focused on corporate ethics. We spent the first half of the year studying advertising, marketing, propaganda, media representations, and doing a few case studies of some of the major corporations that we buy from.

Starting in February, students began working in small groups to research a corporation of their choice. They were required to research and present on a variety of topics: information about the history of the corporation, 1 or 2 major environmental, human rights, or other ethics violations, analysis of the corporations' website, analysis of 2 advertisements, and recommendations about how consumers may further educate themselves about the issues presented. Finally, each group produced a wiki (using pbwiki) containing multiple pages where they organized and presented their research in order to educate the wiki visitor about their corporation. The wikis included links to ads, voicethreads, original essays, photos, slideshows, screencasts, works cited pages - even a word search puzzle and a quiz show!

Since I finished the final evaluation of this big project a few days ago, I thought now would be a good time to reflect a little on how it went.

The bad news first: I am not completely pleased with the quality of the final products. They are far from polished and the students could surely work for another month to follow up on the depth of their research, improve the quality of their writing, and proofread and polish everything! That being said, I am VERY pleased with the process and the level of learning that I know took place in class last quarter. My students worked HARD. They struggled to complete all the requirements and they did not give up. Only one group out of 20 did not complete a wiki. That means that 53 out of 56 students passed my class this quarter. This is a big deal and a huge success! (Sadly, it is not uncommon for one third to one half of the students to fail in a typical quarter.)

I think the wiki format was a big part of why this assignment was so successful. For me one important test of a quality assessment is that it provides students with a challenge on many levels that keeps them sweating, yet feels personally meaningful enough to keep them committed when the going gets tough. Because they were creating a wiki, they were able to have a lot of control over their product. There is also a lot of built in choice, since they were responsible for making several creative and design decisions about the format, how the viewer accesses and navigates through the wiki, which images or multimedia pieces are to be added to enhance the presentation, and most importantly, what content is selected and how it gets presented (within certain assigned guidelines). They knew there would be an authentic audience because their wikis would be shared publicly on the world wide web once they were finished. And finally, they were held accountable by the pbwiki system of documentation (which I will discuss in more detail below because I found it to be such an excellent tool for use in the classroom).

One of the decisions I struggled with from the beginning was how to group the students. We're encouraged to create heterogeneous groups to allow students with stronger skills to assist those with less developed skills, right? But I have observed that that plan can backfire sometimes. What often happens in my classroom is that the less confident students will quietly back away and allow the most advanced student to take over and do most of the work. This is a bad learning situation all the away around. I have found that if students are allowed to choose their own groups, they will end up self grouping around similar skill level, and they will be more comfortable holding each other responsible for participating. Then, in order to complete the assignment, they will all have to work together. In the end, it is more important to me that everyone gets a chance to practice, grow and learn than it is to have end products that are all perfect. I feel allowing kids to work together where they are comfortable will get me closer to that goal. And I think it worked pretty well in the wiki group project.

In the creating of the wiki, students needed to draw on such a wide range of skills - from computer and internet literacies and knowledge of web 2.0 tools (which I've been scaffolding and practicing with them all year), to summary, research, analysis and other critical reading skills, as well as creative thinking skills. They had to tap into their organizational abilities to decide how to create the wiki pages, what to link where, and how to create the overall navigation which would best deliver their information to the viewer. This also means they had to have audience awareness and the overall purpose of the wiki in mind the whole time.

Oh, and I think it's worth mentioning again the practice of collaboration - working with a group for almost three months, and dividing up tasks, keeping each other accountable and motivated, and simply communicating consistently, are all valuable things to practice! (Oh, did I mention attendance improved dramatically third quarter too?)

Finally, I want to talk about the system of ongoing accountability and feedback the pbwiki system provided for me. Every student invited me in as a member of the wiki when they created it. That way I received an email every time an edit was made to that wiki - telling me the exact changes that were made, and which member of the wiki had made the edit! In addition, I could visit each wiki during class while the students were logged in and working, and I could give instant feedback to them as they worked. So during class, we would all be sitting with our laptops open and someone would yell, "Ms. Haug, will you go check our marketing page and see if we did it right?" I could log in, go read it, and comment or edit right on the page immediately. I could also send them links to research or information I found by posting something right on the page where it would help them out. Also, every wiki page has a record of the changes made, who made them and when. And everyone knew it. This held every individual in the group accountable for participating.  I could show parents and remind students anytime of their progress (or lack of!) It felt so much more fair when assigning credit and points to students in a group - which is one of the reasons I hated group work as a student!

Alright! So even though I have gone on forever about this project, I'm certain if you kept reading this far that you are dying to actually SEE a real student wiki or two. So, I thought I'd give a little tour of a few highlights.

Screencasts and videos online

Free online screen recorder

Screencasts and videos online

I've been meaning to catch up here and write about my experiences trying edmoto in my documentary film class. . . I had just come back from last month's MILI meeting where we talked about Twitter and played a little with Today's Meet and edmoto. Although I was really skeptical about all the multitasking and whether it would be all that useful or just another technology distraction for the kids, I decided to give it a try. I had just introduced a writing assignment to my students - a personal essay based on the "This I Believe" essays which I discovered on Minnesota Public Radio. It seemed like the on line group chat might be a fun way to help students generate and share personal beliefs to get them rolling for their essays. I tried Today's Meet but couldn't get the thing to even set up meeting for me, so I switched to edmoto which was really simple to use. 

When the students got to class we talked a little bit about the activity and they jumped right in. I had them REALLY multitasking for this little experiment of mine. First, they had to access a brainstorming assignment on our class wiki. Then they had to start a list of their own ideas on paper. When they were ready, they were to start posting some of their best ideas from the written list onto the group chat. They started tentatively - with pretty shallow comments - but as they got going, the comments really did become more thoughtful, and I could tell students were learning from each other. They not only contributed their own  ideas, they also read and responded to the postings of their classmates, and I could tell new ideas were generated because of the interaction that was talking place. 

Students sat at their desks working on laptops and I had the edmoto screen projected at the front of the room. After the first few minutes of trouble shooting and getting everyone logged on, I was able to observe and participate in the brainstorming session myself. It was completely silent in the room for the whole hour, except for the click of computer keys and the occasional brief outburst of laughter. Everyone was on task and they really enjoyed it. At one point, the dean walked by my classroom, did a double take and came back to say, "This is what it looks like when people are in the FLOW!" When the bell rang at the end of class, no one got up to leave. When they finally did start putting away the laptops, several students commented on their own ideas for ways we could use edmoto again. 

I think I really tested the kids by asking them to juggle reading directions on one web window, writing on paper, and keeping track of the group activity happening in another window. They seemed able to manage it all and it appeared to be a meaningful experience. I later picked out some of the best comments and put them in my "locker" on edmoto. The next day, we went through them and tried another activity in which I read a series of inspirational quotes out loud, and the students listened and commented on each quote. Again, they  were completely focused and generated some great ideas. Kids who often sit shyly in class discussions added some very personal comments and were able to have their voices heard for once. 

I can think of many ways to use this tool in my classes. I wouldn't want to overdo it, but it seemed to be a good way to get the students to focus, "listen" to each other's ideas, and generate ideas together. 

Thing #6

Thing # 6

I'm writing about this one today because I am trying to plan a new unit in my media studies English class in which students will collaborate on a BIG project about corporations and their social responsibility/irresponsibility. The idea is to have them work in small groups to create an educational wiki meant to inform and educate about a specific corporation. This is going to involve a LOT of research, evaluation of various websites, and then production skills. I was thinking I'd have them create a WEBSITE for the information, but I got scared and settled on a wiki. That alone will be a new concept in organizational thinking for them - it was for me at first when I set up my wikis this year.

So, how to get them to collaborate on all the parts and pieces I will expect them to produce as a group. . . I will have to teach them to use google docs for sure. Should I have them set up the wiki as a work space and just put stuff straight in there - since it's a place they can invite only themselves and me - and they can all edit all of it, I can comment and give feedback. . . this will be an interesting experiment. I am a bit concerned that it might overwhelm several of them who are still not completely clear on how and why we use the wiki I created for the class yet - it's December and we use it EVERY DAY almost!!! YIKES! Many of them don't seem to be clear on the fact that they cannot cite google as a source! (Although, many of them are starting to really get the hang of all the web 2.0 tools we are bombarding them with this year. I am seeing lightbulbs come on!)

I need to do more work with the stuff we talked about at November's meeting - the "Hidden Web" and "Think Like a Librarian". . . NetTrekker . . . I better get started.

Grading blogs

So far this year, I am having a pretty good experience introducing and using blogs with my students. They all have their own blogs and are completing many of the shorter response type assignments I used to make them write on paper for homework on their blog. The only glitch with all this has been trying to organize a way to grade all this stuff efficiently. I believe in giving kids written feedback on everything they write, an I have found it to be rather time consuming to 1. enter each individualy blog, 2. search for and read the correct posting,, 3. write my comments, 4. enter the squiggly word code thing they want for EVERYTHING!, 5. click OK a number of times so my comment is allowed to post.. . .then back out of this blog and go to the next one.

One thing that has helped learning about and setting up my google reader. It was easy to import all the students' blogs and now I at least get an update when they post an assignment and I can easily access the blog to read and comment on it. I'm glad I learned that little tip right away in MILI!

There are still some bugs to work out with using blogs as an integral part of my media studies classes, but I am committed to working them out! I found it interesting (and a little scary) to listen to what the kids said in the Youtube video (top 10 reasons to use a blog in the classroom). This is definitely a way to engage many of our students today!

Obama Yes We Can - but Can I?

I used this video in my media studies class today to introduce propaganda. The students were really engaged in the presentation. It's so interesting to me to watch them change their behavior, body language, increase their focus - during a multimedia presentation. It is how THEY learn. I get it. But I also think we need to be careful - so many young people have a hard time taking notes, fully focusing on what is being said in a classroom by a plain old boring teacher. They need that skill too. Sorry if there aren't technicolor flames shooting out my. . . head all day long! Accompanied by a motivational soundtrack! Sometimes I just need to TELL you something, and you just need to listen. Fully listen. Put down the cell phone, pull out the headphones, put down the pen, eat the skittles later. . . Am I a control freak??

How to get started

I am hoping that this blog will be accessible from the mediastudies wiki so that all the students in the class will be able to use ONE simple portal to access their blogs. And so that I will be able to find their blogs and read them all. Oh, I get a headache just thinking about all that reading, and searching, and clicking . . .

I am sort of surprised by how many students asked me today in class (the second day of the year) what a blog is. I expected them to have questions about what a wiki is. But I guess I thought more of them have blogged or at least visited a blog written by someone else maybe.

Well, we all have a lot to learn this year, and I can't wait to get them started and see if they like all this technology or not!