I felt very productive during Week 8, organizing the wiki and adding bits. I also set up the new 'home page' for the support section. A decided to mirror my style with the 'home page' for teaches. During our second Skype meeting, everyone seemed enthused by our progress. The structure suggested by A is working. Everyone seemed to get a boost after the first Skype meeting and there was far more content being put up by everyone although N was the only one who did not put much up. As well as individual content, there was some collaborative writing. In our second Skype discussion, I suggested that instead of thinking of 'my pages', we should start thinking of 'our pages' and there was enthusiastic agreement all round.
I had less time to work on the wiki during Week 9. However, I managed to add some critique to the pages I already created. And I continued to organize the content into folders. A continues to create quite a lot of content. But also S, S and T are adding a lot. T and L have been creating images for navigation and N created a header for the wiki. N, however, is still not doing much writing, just adding small bits.
Before our third Skype meeting, A suggested that we needed to be ruthless and delete undeveloped pages. She created a short list for discussion at Skype. At the meeting, I brought this up and asked whether there were any pages in this list that people were going to develop. This was the first time that I noted anxiety among some members of the group - in particular N but also S. It was mostly their pages that they had just started which was on the list. N was particularly defensive and didn't seen to understand my suggestion to group them in a folder so we could all review them. After the meeting, he brought up the issue again in the DB. Both A and I tried to explain we were not going to delete them but make them more visible by being all together so people could develop them if they wish. S understood and was pleased they were more visible. I am not sure about N.
This has been the only bit of tension so far in the group. And it is understandable. People have different working styles. N has been very slow to produce content but after the third Skype meeting, he has been developing his pages. The only thing is I am not sure if they link in with the rest of the wiki. He is still thinking individually rather than collectively. Both A and I tried to encourage him and others to maybe concentrate on developing existing pages rather than adding new pages. However, it is hard to know whether N felt agrieved as he had done a lot of background work and was holding back in putting anything up on the wiki. I am doing more work on common pages now in particular the metapages. But still need to add some more critical pieces.
Tuesday, 22 November 2011
Wednesday, 9 November 2011
Course Collaboration - Week 7
The whole group had a very successful Skype chat on Saturday morning where we discussed several issues and came up with an action plan for the week. However, L was not present and noone seemed to know what had happened to her. Later in this week we found out that she had left the group early on. Noone had informed us. But what is telling, is that we were supposed to be collaborating in developing a resource and we did not realise until week 6 - when we were organizing a simultaneous meeting - that one of us had dropped out.
I think that illustrates how we were working on our own pieces in isolation and that the Discussion Board is not an effective way to keep track of where people are at. Our tutor apologised on the DB for not telling us. He was preoccupied in easing her exit out of the course and then when that was done, he had forgot to tell us.
We agreed on following A's tentative structure - see how it works out. I volunteered to organize the work that has been done on the wiki into folders. It is something I needed to do to see how it all hangs together and whether the proposed structure is correct. It seems to be working. I have done quite a bit of work on integrating the wiki this week and I feel we are finally collaborating. Only N seems less involved in that he has not written much content - although he has been more active on the DB this week and has made some suggestions.
We have agreed to meet weekly on Saturday morning with a Skype chat. I think this is necessary to keep the collaboration going. I feel more optimistic about the wiki this week.
I think that illustrates how we were working on our own pieces in isolation and that the Discussion Board is not an effective way to keep track of where people are at. Our tutor apologised on the DB for not telling us. He was preoccupied in easing her exit out of the course and then when that was done, he had forgot to tell us.
We agreed on following A's tentative structure - see how it works out. I volunteered to organize the work that has been done on the wiki into folders. It is something I needed to do to see how it all hangs together and whether the proposed structure is correct. It seems to be working. I have done quite a bit of work on integrating the wiki this week and I feel we are finally collaborating. Only N seems less involved in that he has not written much content - although he has been more active on the DB this week and has made some suggestions.
We have agreed to meet weekly on Saturday morning with a Skype chat. I think this is necessary to keep the collaboration going. I feel more optimistic about the wiki this week.
Thursday, 3 November 2011
Course Collaboration - Weeks 4-6
I haven't been reflecting in this blog because the last few weeks have been busy with personal matters. A visit from my sister, my daughter in her first professional play and then a week ago setting off for an 8 week backpacking tour of SE Asia, and also a visit from another friend. I have had to prioritise my work on the online course I am running and just intermittently checking up on the collaborative work to be done on the wiki for the course where I am a student.
A has continued to work diligently on the wiki. She is using a model of a digital essay and is focussing on the content, references etc. As an essay it is excellent work but I feel that her dominance in the group is shaping the wiki. Some others have now added content - T, L, Sh and S. But it is more of an abbreviated form. I am just dipping in and adding a few bits here and there. But I feel I have not been able to be engaged in the same way. Somehow I feel lethargic - I feel that I am not working nearly as hard as I have on other modules.
However, up to this week, you cannot say that we are all collaborating. We are all working on our separate bits. This week, I have engaged more on the course. There was talk about needing to have a synchronous meeting to discuss the wiki. I saw it was difficult to organize on the discussion board, so I set up a Doodle schedule - posted the links on the discussion board and it worked. We are meeting on Skype Saturday morning. I also raised on the discussion board, the issue of what kind of a resource we are creating, the balance of multi-media and text, that A's model was of a digital essay -which was fine but that we need to have a discussion of what we want to look at. I also posted the assessment details and posted a draft agenda. I feel I was more active in organizing the group this week and everyone responded positively. I noticed however, that there is one member -L - who has not said anything or posted anything on the wiki.
Anyway, A came up with a suggestion for collaborating on a technology page in the wiki - i.e. how a certain technology relates to some aspect of what we separately have been focussing on. Again everyone responded positively.
I think A is conservative in terms of the form of the wiki - she didn't do the Digital cultures or Digital Futures course. I think my expectations have been raised by them which is why I feel disappointed in this course. However, it is interesting in terms of the difficulties of collaborating on a wiki. I think having no guidance or content or form is too extreme for a group who have never worked together before.
A has continued to work diligently on the wiki. She is using a model of a digital essay and is focussing on the content, references etc. As an essay it is excellent work but I feel that her dominance in the group is shaping the wiki. Some others have now added content - T, L, Sh and S. But it is more of an abbreviated form. I am just dipping in and adding a few bits here and there. But I feel I have not been able to be engaged in the same way. Somehow I feel lethargic - I feel that I am not working nearly as hard as I have on other modules.
However, up to this week, you cannot say that we are all collaborating. We are all working on our separate bits. This week, I have engaged more on the course. There was talk about needing to have a synchronous meeting to discuss the wiki. I saw it was difficult to organize on the discussion board, so I set up a Doodle schedule - posted the links on the discussion board and it worked. We are meeting on Skype Saturday morning. I also raised on the discussion board, the issue of what kind of a resource we are creating, the balance of multi-media and text, that A's model was of a digital essay -which was fine but that we need to have a discussion of what we want to look at. I also posted the assessment details and posted a draft agenda. I feel I was more active in organizing the group this week and everyone responded positively. I noticed however, that there is one member -L - who has not said anything or posted anything on the wiki.
Anyway, A came up with a suggestion for collaborating on a technology page in the wiki - i.e. how a certain technology relates to some aspect of what we separately have been focussing on. Again everyone responded positively.
I think A is conservative in terms of the form of the wiki - she didn't do the Digital cultures or Digital Futures course. I think my expectations have been raised by them which is why I feel disappointed in this course. However, it is interesting in terms of the difficulties of collaborating on a wiki. I think having no guidance or content or form is too extreme for a group who have never worked together before.
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