Yet Another Student Voice on Wiki-Learning: "It helped a lot to improve my writing skills…."

Tuesday, 23 January 2007 Clay Burell Print This Post

It’s Jan. 24–eight days since I had learners reflect and share their opinions about the French Revolution Wikipedia and “Ant Farm Diaries” workshop we’re doing in the now “teacherless” classroom.

Here’s how Jennifer responded eight days ago:

Re: Answer this: Your thoughts so far…
by jy – Tuesday, 16 January 2007, 08:16 AM
What are your reactions so far to the changes in the way we’re doing history?
Nothing special.What do you think of Diigo?
Diigo is such a good toolbar.

How do wikis feel so far?
Nothing special.

Are the readings at an appropriate level?
Yeah

Do you miss traditional lectures instead of reading and asking questions on your own?
no

If you think I enjoyed sharing that on this blog, you need night school

So imagine my reaction when I went to our wiki just now and saw this message waiting for me on the discussion page, unbidden and unassigned (in other words, voluntary):

Mr. B~
I personally like the ant farm diary project.
It took some time to do it, but it helped a lot to improve my writing skills and selecting word choices.
Ha~ ha~ Also, posting homeworks on wikispaces was quite interesting too. Because I can read other people’s diaries and compare to my diary. And, I really love the discussion page where you could write a comment for other students. Because I get to know how other people see my work, and things that I need to improve myself.
THANK YOU~~~~~

It should be obvious why I share this: first, it shows that in a short eight days (only 4 lessons), Jennifer went from “nothing special” to “I personally like it,” “It helped a lot to improve my writing skills,” “Homeworks [sic] was interesting [!] because I can read other people’s diaries and compare to my own” (social/peer-learning–”teacher” hasn’t even responded to all the student diaries yet, but each student gets three student peer-reviews after each assignment in the “discussions” tab on his/her diary page. And note the “I can read….” Interesting word choice. She didn’t write, “I had to read…” Did she read more than assigned?); “I love the discussion page where you could write a comment for other students, because I get to know how other people [love the plural--not just "teacher" any more, as in traditional homework] see my work….”

So Jennifer complained in week one: “Nothing special.” And in week two, look what she’s discovered. And taught me.

Spivey is concerned about some complaints he got from some of his students at the end of week one. We’re listening, and of course we’ll be good reflective teachers and do an “After Action Review” (any Army veterans out there? Remember those after field exercises?) and fine-tune the project.

But Jennifer’s feedback confirms this: Sometimes a teacher has to hold firm and not bow to student complaints that something is “too hard,” “confusing,” or “unpleasant.” Especially when the teacher knows these complaints will come, but trusts in time–and his/her students’ abilities to adapt and learn–to take care of these early complaints.

(And think of how the peer review/writing process will work when peer editors are from other countries. This is what I look forward to in the 1001 Flat World Tales world writing project. When your peer editor is from another culture, you can’t assume they’ll “just get” your ideas. And you’ll learn that through hearing how your cross-cultural reader interprets what you wrote. [Yes, this is a plug for any teacher-lurkers who haven't yet replied and said, "I'm interested. Let's collaborate. My classroom and other classrooms around the world. Again, the list so far: Shanghai, Seoul, Canada, the USA, and, this morning, New Zealand. Please add yourself to this list. No deadlines--do it on your own schedule.])

Again, exciting times to be a teacher.