Thursday, November 16, 2006

Speaking of Wikis. . . .

Over the break at Christmas Wayne Morse and Shannon O'Daniel have agreed to sit down and teach me how to use a wiki. I want to experiment with it in my 205 Spring Semester. They also agreed to come to one of my classes and teach the students how to make entries. Let's see how this goes; if there is any interest, we can meet informally next semester and I will tell you what (if anything!) I have learned.

I plan to have the students define various genres of poetry, "fixed" forms with examples, etc. Instead of finding definitions in a handbook, I want them to create their own handbook. I have found too that the writing certainly improves if the students know they are reading and judging one another's work, so if for no other reason it will be valuable as a tool for teaching writing.

6 Comments:

Blogger Michael E. said...

Hooray, once again, for Wayne and Shannon. I'm curious to hear how this goes.

By the way, I'm still in conversation with the "wiki group" about a developing a wiki for the graduate program. At least, I think they are still talking to me....

8:53 PM  
Blogger rachel said...

we're talking to you alright.

I think there are plans to conduct an informal grad student survey in the near future to assess viability of/interest in a dept. wiki.

Harry, I can't wait to see how this turns out. I think grad students teaching comp could put this kind fo approach to interesting use, if the students get excited about it. I wonder how yours will react.

8:56 AM  
Blogger Michael E. said...

Rachel -- This explains why I just received an e-mail from one of your peers telling me that he had deleted "the technology survey" and asking me to resend it.

9:42 AM  
Blogger rachel said...

M: We actually haven't distributed any kind of survey yet, so that's the wrong source of explanation.

However I also got an email from a peer earlier this week asking about an email re: technology, which I couldn't place. But now that I see your email, I am remembering an email (and a couple of reminders) a few weeks ago from someone affiliated with the school (I think; I mostly remember that his name looked like "Rick Rambuss" but wasn't and it was a bulk email) asking instructors to direct their undergrads to an online survey about technology use. I can't find the email, but I'm guessing that's what the inquiry was about.

10:14 AM  
Blogger Brian said...

Harry, I'm with Rachel that I think this is a great move and I'm very interested to see how it works for you. One idea that I have had for using wikis is to have freshmen comp writers write their own style book using one. The purpose then is that people will have to learn the rules before they can write them in their own words.

I'm looking forward to the "report" next semester.

1:09 PM  
Blogger Lauren said...

Hi everyone,
Harry, I would also be interested the meeting next semester to hear about your experiences with the wiki in the classroom.

3:02 PM  

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