Learner Reflections after Month One of Wiki Work

This very long post has 18 complete student reflections a week after they finished their first wiki project. As data for teachers new to wikis, or thinking about trying them the first time, I highly recommend the student “teachings”.

For anyone doing research, these are 9th graders (age 15). Note an earlier post contains reflections after one week. This is after four weeks. The comparisons might be instructive to some.

I haven’t even started grading the French Revolution wiki and “Ant Farm Diaries” yet. (I should have credited Dan McDowell, a San Diego HS history teacher, for the Ant Farm wiki idea long ago. His NECC “Wiki Adventure” pdf’s are a gold mine for teachers wanting ideas of how to jump in.) But I did have the students do a US-Army style “AAR” (After Action Review) to identify 3 things about their/our first wiki experience to keep, improve, and reject.

They posted this on Moodle this morning. I know that the lack of anonymity might make the data suspect in some eyes; but I trust it, based on the four months we’ve had to build a relationship and get to know each other. To me, the voices below sound authentic and sincere–and very worth listening to. (They sure seem to want to be heard.)

Sorry I didn’t edit. This is whole hog. I did bold the things I thought most noteworthy.

1. Sean:
Doing this project on the wiki was very easy and fun. At first, I didn’t understand how to do anything on the wiki but as I got used to it, I really felt that it was very useful. I liked how the readings were online, so I didn’t have to carry textbooks home. I enjoyed doing the ant farm journals. It was fun interacting with other characters and writing a story. I learned a lot by doing the journals because I kept reading and re-reading the readings to make sure that I understand what I’m writing about.

3keep
1. student feedback
2. everything online
3. every student had their own character , so there were many characters to interact with

3improvements
1. more time with journals
2. more peer editing
3. less words for journals

2. Matt:
This wiki project was fun, well at the first time, it was really hard, but when you got into it, it was really fun and easy to write. I think I learned many things by doing this.
Keep
1. I like the way how we, students, gave feedbacks to each other (it is really helpful)
2. We had enough time to work on it….
3. NO textbook? but just some articles, i liked the articles, they were okay to read and understand.
Improve
1. More feedbacks? we each had to do 4 at least for first three diaries, but the fourth and fifth ones were not required, so I didn’t get any feedbacks.
2. Whenever i go to the “Ant Farm” page, i was kinda annoyed how there were the past work stuff, I think it will be better if you organize the page every week or so.
3. Wiki was kinda hard to use, before we get to use it, you can help us to learn about this thing more.
Reject
I think I liked everything? no reject…

Mr. B:
Excellent feedback, Matt. Thanks for teaching me.

The improvements you suggest are right on target. I’ll do it next time.

Can you explain improvement 3 a little more? What should I teach you, exactly?
(click “Read more…” for about 15 more very instructive reflections.)

3. Daniel:
Overall, I quite enjoyed writing diaries during class. It was my first experience after all from all the traditional classes. I liked the idea of searching and learning by yourself on the Internet. However, using the computer and Internet takes more time than just doing paper work (you can’t do it while off-line… kind of things). It would be much more relaxing if we had some extra time on doing the assignments.

Doing the diaries was fun, but I’d like to do it in some other way if we’re planning to do “writing” again this time. Maybe something like newspaper articles would be interesting (group separate tasks).

On the diaries the feedbacks helped me improve my writing a lot, and the number of feedback was quite adequate.

In some aspects, I would still like some of the “teacher’s” teaching. There are things reading cannot teach us. I would like to hear more interesting stuff about history from our teacher. I think some ten min. wouldn’t be that bad.

Mr. B:
Excellent, Daniel, thanks.

I’ll chew on what you said….maybe ten minutes of teacher-talk isn’t too boring?

4. Jihyung:
Wiki reflection
Keeps
I think that writing those diaries were very fun and interesting. From all the homeworks we’ve done, this was one of the most entertaining homeworks I’ve ever done. I think that this was really helpful for us to understand the French Revolution, and also enjoy our creative writing really fun.

Improve
Dividing up the people’s character with different estates affected the way we wrote. This was a very good way to let us understand the difference with each estates.

Making your character be a part of something you are learning about really helps us to understand what we are learning. But it would be better if we could choose our character’s job, estates freely.

I think that we should keep this and do these kind of assignment more.

Reject
I think that there should be no limit of words, because people might run out of things to say.

Mr. B:
But if you all chose to be kings, how would that help the project? If you can find a way that both includes all classes AND offers choice, I’ll listen.

As for no word limit, that’s a free pass for laziness (or weak imagination–which, like a muscle, can be strengthened by exercise, which means minimum length )

5. Won Seok

Our first wiki project was new and exciting for me. It was something that I have never done in my life. Writing a diary with a different point of view from you was interesting and also educational. The ant farm diaries were fun to write since you have to interact with other characters in the ant farm. Our characters married each other, had their house burnt down, and wrote about historical situations. I learned quickly this way writing a diary based on the historical facts of the French Revolution. In class, we understood the readings and the events that we should include in our diaries. We could also cooperate with other students in class to make the ant farm diaries more complex. In outside class, we had to think we our own logical minds of how a character in a French Revolution would write in diaries during that time.

Teachers can write diaries in the ant farm too. Mr. Burell can write about his own character so we could learn from him. He can also show us how he relates historical events to his own personal character’s view point, because it was a hard thing to do. That was something that was missing. However, the process of how the ant farm diaries was good. Reading the readings based on the facts and writing a diary was fun. Activities and projects like this should be taken further.

Mr. B:
Excellent feedback, WonSeok. Especially:

Teachers can write diaries in the ant farm too. Mr. Burell can write about his own character so we could learn from him. He can also show us how he relates historical events to his own personal character’s view point, because it was a hard thing to do. That was something that was missing.

I’d love to join next time. (I was just too busy trying to manage this thing, since I was making it all up as it went ).

6. Jessica

2 to keep

• The Character Brainstorm: it was a good way to build up a character before writing our diaries.

• Doing these diaries based on the French Revolution readings: It made sure I was reading close enough to the reading so I can come up with a valid idea for a diary.

3 to improve

• GRAPHICS! A lot of the entries I saw had absolutely no graphics. It was boring to just LOOK at the diary.
• Character Feedback! A lot of the time when I checked my feedback, all I’d see was “good job”. It didn’t help me very much.
• Keeping to your character. I noticed people didn’t stay in touch with their character, trying to express the emotions in the event. It wasn’t that of a big deal…but sticking with your character’s personality could get better.

1 to reject

• Being required to use characters from ALL of the estates in your entry– this became a HUGE nuisance while writing in our Ant Farm Diaries. It is hard to express the event AND make sure that all the characters were there. Our focus came off of the event and to the characters–I STRONGLY suggest we throw this out or only be required to include two.

Anything to add?
Perhaps recording ourselves saying our diary entry. That would be a fun touch and it would be easier to listen to it being told for the reader.

Mr. B.:
LOVED the recording idea. Heard the others. Agree with all (except for the “nuisance” thing. Find a way that you can learn about other social levels without interacting with them in the diary, and I’ll listen. But you have to learn more than just one point of view. That’s part of the goal for the unit).

Thanks for the effort on this.

7. Joon:
Through the French Revolution Unit, I learned an essential skill to prepare myself for the future. I learned to research instead waiting for the teacher to tell me the information.

Through the diaries, I was able to gain and show my knowledge about the French Revolution. I suggest keeping the diaries.

Also, I think it’s a great idea to use the internet rather than “harmful to the environment paper.”

The discussions were also helpful, peer comments show interaction between students or “learners.”

I like the way this project is. However, if I could change one thing, I would assign the students to do a verbal presentation, perhaps explaining their diary or their character. Speaking is also a key factor of communication.

Mr. B:
Fantastic response, Joon. And you’re right about the verbal. Now I see that, thanks to you.

Time pressures (covering all the material) make me exclude many class activities. How can the verbal happen for sixteen students without taking up a whole class or two?

8. Paul:
I think number of peer reviews is just adequate amount( I didn’t do it yet, because I was absent and I was busy writing diaries). I read my classmate’s reviews on another student, and I think it is very helpful idea because critiquing is as important as writing.

This unit was a good experience to me, because in the school that I attended before, they never gave students assignments that require you to use internet skillfully. I just needed to search a simple information, and copy/paste, copy/paste…..that was the homework. However, in this class, I needed to know all the useful programs and tool bars such as Mozilla Firefox and Diigo, and also to write my diaries realistic, I had to read most of my friends‘ works. Since I was two weeks behind, I needed to do all the works at once, but writing diaries as a historical character was pretty fun. It helped me a lot in learning French Revolution, and also I got used to using internet for homeworks.

Everything was interesting and very helpful, but I think writing 5 diaries is too much. Well, if I did not go to U.S it might not be that much, but anyways, I feel that it is quite a lot.

Other than that, everything was good. I really enjoyed it and I hope we keep improving the class.

Mr. B:
So far, no other students (but I’m not finished yet) have said five diaries was too much. But I’ll keep reading and still think about it. Excellent feedback. Glad this felt more “real” and useful than your last school’s homework, and that you’re seeing the power of the new web 2.0 tools!

9. William:
I think we are progressing a lot. Using the wiki is very useful. I got enough feedback. Not too many, but not too little. 1 or 2 would not be enough for our wiki assignment to change, but more than 6 could have been too much feedback for us to handle. Some people said that they liked mine and just sent it, but most people also gave me minor changes to my assignment for it to be better.

The diaries were not that bad. It was much better than handwriting diaries because that would take way too long. Maybe if we had only 1 dairy for homework, we could have concentrated on that 1 dairy at home instead of thinking of 2 diaries at the same time which would lead the diaries to not be the best that we could write about. The interaction between characters were complicated. When I did anything to another character, I would have to tell that person and we would have to take some time to set a time for the event that happened and we would both have to match our diaries. If that didn’t happen, then the diaries would make sense together and that wouldn’t be good. The diaries forced me to read the French Revolution site again and again.

When I first used diigo, I think I did something wrong. I took hours on writing notes for myself and when i was done, my notes were all over the place in my diigo site. It became too complicated and I decided not to use diigo for this assignment, but I was planning to use it on the next assignment.

The reading levels are okey. When I read the passage at first, there are many things I do not understand clearly. That forces me to read it over and over again, and when the unit is over, I understand almost all of the passage.

The traditional lectures are also very useful. They answer a lot of questions and if there was anything in the reading that we missed you told it to us. You should do traditional lectures from time to time.

I don’t see any problem in the wiki. It is easy for me to use and we don’t have to bring any homework to school. We also don’t have to handwrite it so I do my homework faster than before.

Mr. B:
Lots of good feedback there, William. Let’s figure out what you’re doing with Diigo. It really is brilliant, but it’s young and they’re working on some bugs. I talk to them a lot on chat and Skype.

Everything you said is noted. Glad you noticed what re-reading can do for comprehension. And the diary interactions didn’t have to be so complicated. I’d love it if we could talk a few minutes about what I need to do to prevent that stuff next time. Can you give me a few minutes to meet?

Thanks!

10. Rachel:
History has become much more practical and interesting for me. Writing the Ant farm diaries was something I had never done before! I had to research a lot about the French Revolution and about my character. It really helped me to understand what it was like in the French Revolution.
It was also a great idea to give and get feedbacks to and from other characters after reading their diary. It was helpful and I was able to improve my next diary. I was also able to look for the good and bad things in other people’s diaries. This helped me to know what I should do in my diary.

It was also a very clever idea to put in other characters in to my diary. I, not only, learnt about my character but also characters who were in my estate or from the foreign countries. In order to write these diaries I also had to read through many websites that talked about the different events in the French Revolution. Although it took quite a long time to think about how I could talk about the events in my diary, it was a great way to learn.

Writing 1000 words in two days was a lot of work. It did take a lot of time to think up a story. But when I got into my character, I had already gone through half of my essay. After the school activities, it was a tiring and time-consuming work. However, it seemed effective!

I think that next time, when we do the ant farm diary, we could become many characters, not just one. For example, we could be a character from each estate, as well as a foreigner. I think this activity could be more effective if we researched and read stories in different views characters’ views.

Mr. B:

After the school activities, it was a tiring and time-consuming work. However, it seemed effective!

–good!

I think that next time, when we do the ant farm diary, we could become many characters, not just one. For example, we could be a character from each estate, as well as a foreigner. I think this activity could be more effective if we researched and read stories in different views characters’ views.

–sounds like more work , but maybe not. I guess if you’re reading other students’ characters and character creations, you’re learning enough to change roles, right?

It’s a good idea, actually. Would you mind thinking about it a little more and giving me a sort of “ant farm project” summary of how you’d like it to work next time?

11. Il-jee:
Keep:
1. keep ant farms- even though they seem like bunch of fiction diaries, during the time I write the diaries, it made me think about the position of my character. Which shows I’m learning about FR

2. keep the idea of contacting each other characters- interacting was hard since it was a single diary and you had to include 3 different people and it was hard being creative, so I cheated and put more than one day worth diary in one diary page. Even though I did this, it kept me trying to be creative.

3. keep peer feedbacks- peer feedbacks are a good way of learning how to write my own diary as well as a way to learn how to criticize someone else‘s. Since Mr.B isn’t available every other class to grade our diaries, peer feedbacks are helpful. Something is better than nothing.

Improve:
1. improve the feedback system- when we had to feedback anyones papers “popularity” got in the way. Some got 10 while some got none. Feedbacks needed to be better. Many tell what we did good more than what we need to improve so it is hard to see what I’m missing, and some feedbacks seem lack of effort.

2. improve on learning- we read on our own, learn on our own, and write on our own, but this way it is hard for us to ask others. We ask each others who are unsure of the answers which causes confusion, and we leave things behind since we can’t find the answer and we’ve got other stuff to do.

3. improve how we use time in class- we do feedbacks, and some put lots of effort and some put none. So I think it is really unfair when someone puts lots of effort into other’s work while others put none.
Reject:
1. reject the idea of 1 or 2 diaries due next class- we’ve got other classes, and since its online we can change anytime anywhere, and we get pressurized by the fact its due “next class” and to be honest this diary does take a while. It doesn’t mean lets not have it due- but maybe we should assign few diary entries at a time and make it due after a week so we have control of what to put first and what to put later. If someone slacks off, it’ll be their fault they put history assignment behind and they have to rush and do their “last minute works”

Mr. B:
Thanks, Il-jee.

Excellent feedback on peer response weaknesses. I’ll try to improve that next time. (Lazy peers will see lower grades this time around, though).

I also need to assign each diary feedback from a set number of students. I fell down on this a few times this first try.

I’ll also put a “questions for clarification” page on the next wiki, so any uncertainties can be put there and I (or other students) can reply. Excellent point!

I don’t get your “reject” idea. For people to reply and interact, all diaries and readings have to be in sync. So was the real problem that the pace was too fast?

Thanks for the great feedback, again.

B

12. Yoo Hee:

when i first start using wiki i thought uploading homework on online will be tough for me but…soon as i get used to it…wiki is so much comfortable…

feed back:…while i am reading other people’s diary..i could understand details that i couldnt understand before from the reading so getting feedback and giving a feedback helped me…..and 3 feedback for each diary wasnt too much for me..and i had quite fun and also educational//

i think the way mr.b and mr. s putted assignment on the wiki wasnt confusing at all, and i liked it. like lessson 1,2,3,4,5,6,7…so on// that way i could know which assignment i have to do and which assignment i should not do…….& posting assignment on seperate page (my own link) it made less complicated and good thing that i can change my page when ever i wanted to

things to get change (improve):

i think writing 500word per day was quite too much…but 200 or less than 500words diary will be not enough for putting all the information and details..so it might have been better if we wrote 500 per one class…or 1and 1/2 diary(impossible…:X)/// actually 1000words diary was not too much but it was too much for me to do other homework…

Mr. B:
Excellent feedback, Yoo Hee.

The pace and workload points–I hear you. Glad you see how convenient and powerful groups projects on wikis can be!

13. Sunny:
I really enjoyed this wiki project.

It was such a nice experience.

The feedbacks I got from my classmates helped me to improve and advance my writings and they were very helpful. I think 2 feedbacks per person is just enough. I also think giving feedbacks to others helped them as well.

Writing the diaries helped me to learn and understand deeper about the French Revolution. It was very effective and I could express how much I learned about the French Revolution in my writings.

I think interacting with other characters is a brilliant idea. It was fun to be one of the historical characters and to get to know about the person and include few other characters in my diaries .

However, it was too much for me to finish one 500-word diary every class because it took me a long time to write and it affected my other studies. As long as we get more time to work on it, I definitely want to do this type of project again.

Mr. B:
Thanks, Sunny, for the excellent feedback.

Now I know to make the load lighter next time!

14. Young Min:
3 things to keep

1. The way we linked to one another, it made the reader easy to read.. Also, when we used [the wiki], there were chances of getting our work erased if 2 people click post at same time but since everyone has their own page after linking, no one lost their diaries.

2. After people peer feedback to others, it was easy for the writer how to improve. For example, they gave me ideas that i never really thought about and how i can make diary better.

3. i also want to keep how all 9th grade history class got to interact with each other. I liked the idea how we all can read others diaries to make some changes and help each other.

3 things to improve

1. i want to improve the way people feedback each other. Most of times, people choose their friend’s diaries or very short one. Because of that, some people get 7 feedbacks when others get 2 or 3. Also, at first we feedback really actively at first then about 4th or 5th diary, we didn’t. So we should feedback all of our diaries.

2. When i interacted with other people’s character, i really had to think i was in French Revolution in order to make it realistic. But, since interacting with other characters were also important, it made me to focus on interacting rather than on writing historical facts. So i think we could have write about minimum or 250 words on interacting with others and minimum of 250 on historical facts.

3. Also i think teachers should keep track on how we did, like make some kind of comment in discussion page to keep the students know where they are going.

Rejection

No rejection. Everything can be improved.

Mr. B:
Great feedback, Young Min!

I was too busy to be able to spend as much time monitoring as I wanted, but also wanted to step back and see how you learned with each other as teachers. Collaboration.

I’ll definitely assign more even peer response partners next time to stop the “popularity” thing.

And your points about the minimum number of words on historical accuracy are interesting, but I’m not sure how practical. Maybe there’s a different path to the same result? Like number of historical details per diary or something?

Think about it and let me know what ideas you have.

GREAT feedback.

15. Gihoon:
So here are my thoughts to all this. I think we did some parts good for this wiki are, while we were using this new (at least to us) device, we got to experience it. That is important. And this diary assignment made us read the Revolution deeply, and as well as other people’s. And lastly, this was well done because we got to imagine what it was like back then in the situation.

The things we could have improved on are- time management, more understanding of the wiki, and finally, the foreigners. Honestly, I thought we had too little time to write two 500 word diary per day. And if we had better understanding of all the functions of the wiki, I think we could have done it better. Lastly, I feel that the foreigner aristocrats did not have much role. I mean they were really minor. So if their characters improved, I feel that the wiki can improve.

Ok, one rejection. I think we should reject the three different people rule. Three estates meeting are not often found I think. Because of this, some cheesy stories can be created. I think two different characters fine, but three is hard to do.

Mr. B:
All good points, Gihoon!

For the record, it was 2 diaries, 500 words each, every TWO days .

16. Lisa:
KEEP:
one thing i liked about the wiki was the ant farm idea. it was fun to interact with other students character as you have a chace to get inside there head sorta. i also liked the fact that things were bit open. like for example the way you wanted your character’s personality was up to you and you didnt have much rules. one thing i noticed through doing this journal is that you actually get a better sense of what it was like back then. if you learn from the txtbooks or stuff then you are just told that groups of people felt in a certain way but you dont actually think or get deep and notice that there are some people who might have thought differently just like today. through doing this journal i learned that everyone thinks differently about the same situation.

IMPROVE:
i think the 500 word homewrk every day was an okay amount but on days that other classes gave homewrk too i would find myself rushing the diary and not inputting the information i could of put in if i had more time or lacking interaction with one of the social classes. especially since i have after school activities and get home well after 6. i also think that for the
one thing i had trouble with was making sure my facts were correct. after reading the readings i wasnt all to clear on the main ideas so i had a hard time to write my journal with correct facts. so the chart thing of the main ideas you had made for the second reading really helped me. it didnt like tell me everything but if just gave me and idea to work on. i think that the diary i wrote when i was provided with the chart is must more accurate and well written than the others.

Rejects:
i honestly dont have any. nothing bugged me or anything.

Mr. B:
Excellent, Lisa.

I hear you about the outlines to help find main ideas, and will try to find time to do that next time.

Actually, I’ll probably just use Diigo and share my notes (make them public) for students to see.

As for “not getting the historical accuracy” the first time, that’s what I, myself, liked about having you write the diaries first, based on your own undertanding of the readings and your discussions on the wiki with your classmates, THEN lecturing and “spoon-feeding” the info to you afterwards–and letting you revise the wikis by just adding changing little details based on the lectures.

I thought that was a fair balance. Didn’t you?

I heard you. Thanks!

17. Leslie:
Keeps
-It helped me understand the different views of the French Revolution because of the different estates, i interacted with in the diaries.
- I liked the peer editing because then I would know what i had to fix, and what i could improve on.
-I really liked how there were many people to interact with

IMPROVE
- I think there should be more peer editing, because sometime the feedbacks don’t help out a lot.
- I think when we interact with the other characters we should maybe do two people not people from all of the different estates.
- I liked how i was someone else writing the diary entry, but i think it would be fun if we were maybe more than one character, to see the different point of views.
-Also, i think that after each readings we did we should have a little review the next class

REJECT
-When we had two diary entries over the weekend to do, it was fine for me, but when we had only two days to do it, I think it was a little harsh on me.

-Also, i think that after each readings we did we should have a little review the next class.

Mr. B:

See my reply to Lisa about review after readings and tell me if you agree.

18. Patrick:
2 things you should keep:

The diaries: I thoroughly enjoyed writing them, fun and imaginative, but also with historical information integrated into it, life was hell-of-lot easier when we tried to learn ‘the basic outline’ of the French Revolution.

The wiki thing: Its an easy and convenient tool to use… I never used it before and this unit helped me realise the power of this tool

1 things you should improve:

the peer feed back thing: My honest opinion was that about 70% of the feedback I received was pretty useless to me. However, I cannot forget about the other 30% that really did help me out…… So it can be very useful, if used the right way... maybe give use more time to think about our feedback rather than ‘those do-it-fast’ pressure sessions in class…..

1 thing you should not use:

the interaction: for me this interaction thing was a pain in the neck for a few reasons. When I write creatively I usually plan out everything in detail in my head and then start writing. When I realised I have to change my storyline to fit the interaction requirement, I was not too happy….. When I write I hate being bound by requirements and rules I have to follow…. I’m sure that many others are like that too… You could use it as an option, but definitely not a requirement….

Mr. B:
The feedback part definitely needs improvement. Maybe I’ll have student writers grade the feedback they get. (The project grade will include this time the quality of feedback people gave.)

As for the interaction requirement, I’m of two minds about that. Seems a compromise would be that you plan after reading a few other student characters. I don’t want to lose the “gaming” element and the interaction. It has its educational purposes (for example–other students who read you surely noticed what good writing looks like, and learned from it).

Wasn’t that requirement also communicated before you ever started writing the second-fifth diaries? I think so.

As for “hating” rules and requirements? Sorry, but emotions aren’t arguments. While I sympathize, I can’t allow absolute freedom. That wouldn’t work here, or in the real world (unless you become a writer ).

Good feedback, thanks.

1. Yet Another Student Voice on Wiki-Learning: "It helped a lot to improve my writing skills…."
2. Another Student Voice: "This is Why Writers Like to Write Stories"–A Wiki Makes a Writer
3. Anonymous Student Feedback on Wiki "French Revolution Ant Farm Diaries" Project
4. French Revolution Writing to Learn "Ant Farm" Wiki Open to the Public

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