2007年11月3日 星期六
Topic 3: ESL/EFL writing and Wiki
Wiki, known as a co-writing medium, has been used in language learning recently. Have you used Wiki, for any writing projects? What you think of the interface design and the different functions of Wiki? How would you rate its practicality and usability? Exactly how did you use Wiki in your writing? Are there any advantages or disadvantages compared to the traditional paper-based writing?
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I also have wikispace for my writing projects. But I just used it recently. I wrote what I learned in writing class. It help me to record the points. I can share with my classmates.
This semester, I started to use a wikispace in my English writing class. I think it is designed for people to do co-writing. Through the settings, we could revise each other's writings, and we also could see the modifications. Comparing with the traditional paper-based writing, it is much convenient because we don't have to rewrite the hole paragraph.
I have used wiki for few months that my English teacher had us to do so. Now we make use of it to do some assignments, besides, I have a Voki, a cute tool that I can record my voice through a picture, on my wikispace. I really think my snail is very cute.Haha.
Hi Mia, Evelyn, Yiwen, and Carolyn, Frankly, wiki is one of my favorite tools since it facilitates the practice of process writing and the peer feedback. The trustworthiness discussed in Wikipedia is an quite thought-provoking and inspiring to me. The direct quote is as follows. "Most people, when they first learn about the wiki concept, assume that a website that can be edited by anybody would soon be rendered useless by destructive input. It sounds like offering free spray cans next to a grey concrete wall. The only likely outcome would be ugly graffiti and simple tagging, and many artistic efforts would not be long lived. Still, it seems to work very well." Let me know what you think of this quote.
I agree with the quote because we can't avoid others revising our wiki. However, it is not as bad as the quote says since I think that most people who understand the function of wiki would not revise others'works randomly and we can restore our wiki by the funciton that wiki provides, so the original work appears again. Wiki does good about discussion, I think we do not need to worry much about that, right?
Wiki can go with English writing very well because we can edit our peers' wikispaces. In addition, we can exchange our opinions through scanning others' wiki; also, we can edit others' articles. I think it is really a good tool to use.
I think Wiki is easy to register. When people edit their writing each time, Wiki will record the time of changing and differences. I think these are its advantages.
Hi, Yiwen, Yilings and Vulcanelf, I agree that Wiki has good usability in terms of interface and the interaction design. I particularly enjoy the history function given the comparison reports that highlight the changes between two revisions of a page in green and red colors. This is handy for someone who is in charge of compiling the wiki pages since the recent changes/modifications can be quickly verified and observed.
Wiki is very informative, but not all the information on WIKI is correct, as I gradually find out.
The biggest disadvantage is that WIKI may be a place where students could "cheat" or "plagiarize."
The advantage is that students could search for the information that need very easily. That is , it is very user-freindly.
Wiki is not only Wiki, I believe.
I mean, when Marty referred us the wiki, he specifically means the wikispaces. However, when Angela mentioned wiki, she means wikipedia. But I will say, wiki is just a very general idea. According to my knowledge, wiki is a specific web platform for use in knowledge management. I have no idea about does wiki has specific codes for its development. But philosophy for wiki websites is easily to edit, link, and add for previous/new items. Then everyone can accessibly share knowledge in these wiki websites.
As we know, the most famous website is wikipedia. However, there are still a lot of wiki websites. Some open source software own their wiki websites. It is because wiki has similar concept as open source development. Everyone can participate, share, exam, modify and use these knowledge/codes. By this way, better knowledge management and development can be achieved.
I must confess, I have never heard about wikispaces before Marty’s post and I don’t know what’s it benefits for me, either. Due to the limitation of scale, I wonder what’s the difference between wikispaces and other tools, such as discussion forum or Google docs, or even meeting in face. I am sorry I know nothing about education. My understanding for wiki’s benefit is knowledge itself, platform or language only play role of tools here. When Marty introduce us a lot web platform/tools, I actually cannot find the explicit ‘linkage’ between these and English writing.
Another question of wiki, or wikipedia is the accuracy. Some education institutes even do not allow their students to use information form wiki for their paper or homework. But I wonder, what kind of we can totally believe. When we access some information, what we have to do is o understand, judge, even criticize before we believe. Nowadays, we should have different aspects to knowledge. Being an informative/knowledgeable person may be not as important as it was. Using correct information/knowledge from overwhelming data may become a more prior skill to survive.
Additionally, internet accessibility does not promote students for cheating or plagiarizing. It helps us easily to do a lot of things. Students did/do cheating and plagiarizing in any ages, not only when they have internet. For students who we think they did/do cheating and plagiarizing, at least they have the ability to search for information. Actually, we do cheating and plagiarizing, but just in a sophisticated way. We define: this way is not cheating/plagiarizing at all.
My point of view for wiki is: understand, criticize and think before you believe. It is the same for anything.
To Angela, I think you mean wikipeda as Gene indicated. Wikipedia is open for the public to write and edit, thereby resulting in a problem of lacking validity and reliability. Gene has mentioned many interesting issues about using wiki in education and I would like to share some of my ideas. Actually, wikispace provides a good platform for peer response because students in a class can give feedback and correct errors for one another. The modifications can be observed in the history section in both green and red colors (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image
:History_comparison_example.png). Meanwhile students can use the discussion areas for clarifying their opinions and have further communication interchange. Based on Vygotsky’s scaffolding theory, the social interaction will help learners move to their zone of proximal development (ZPD) and reach the learning goals. Wiki per se definitely features the interactivity and interdependency in a learning community.
Regarding plagiarism, I think strategies to deter this latest form of academic misconduct must be developed. There are many web sites that provide models of policies, citation guides, and suggestions to deter plagiarism. Some sites even offer sample lessons for instructors to use in their own curriculum. In turn, it is the responsibility of all educators to teach and train students about the ethics of research and scholarship. Soft wares for detecting plagiarism are also available nowadays. Please check the URLs below.
http://www.teach-nology.com/
highered/plagiarism/detecting/software
http://www.scanmyessay.com
http://plagiarism.phys.virginia.edu
Well,all I know that wiki is such a biographical way to record something.But teacher tells us that we can also creat belong to us wiki. It is surprised to me.wiki has many different function.Not only record but also another functions.
I have a wiki space that the professor of CALL asked us to make some projects on the website. Writing in the internet that is a kind of motive to renew articles continually. Because you know that there are many people will read it.
I think the use of wiki in writing can let student revise the work each other. Then student can how to revise the work and discuss. So it is good to communicate with other people.
I have a wikispacce, and I think wiki is better than blog. Coz I can send any informatin on wiki and I collect it in the same data to let guest view. Also I can have own project on wiki. I like to use wiki!
I have wikispaces for my computer classes, how to teach English with technology, but I just used it recently. Now, I do not know how I use it at this class, but I think maybe we will use it for writing something and revise each other's writings, and then, we also could see the modifications. If it compared to the traditional paper-based writing, it is much convenient because we do not have to rewrite the whole paragraph. I think it is a good tool to use and communicate with others.
I also have wikispaces for myself too. Because of this settings that I can have more writing pratices on line! It is not only a good setting that I can share the article with many people but also I can learn more writing skills from ohter people.
I just have wiki recently. Therefore, I haven't used wiki for any writing projects. I will try the function right away. I think the interace design is pretty good and its functions are multiple.
Recently, I started to use wiki and try to make my own style. I think wiki is better and more interesting than wretch, but it's also be more difficult a little bit. Actually, wiki is like building a website, you need to do more than just writing some article.
I have used Wiki as my writing tools. Wiki not only provide users to practice writing on it, but also provide the function of modifying other's composition. The advantages of Wiki is that other users could correct your writing if you write something wrong. It's real convenient for people in practicing writing and do not waste papers.
I used Wiki when I was a freshman. I can post a lot of imformation on it and imoprve my writing by writing articles on it.
I use Wiki to write some reflection and my teacher introduces Wiki in the CALL. I think it is convenient to edit my articles in Wiki, and then other people can correct the grammar of my articles immediately. It is a good tool for english learners to practice english writing and english learners can learn how to write in good english efficiently.
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