Hi folks, I think the answer to Peter's question should be 'both'. I see scope for entry-level students, and also room for more scholarly contributions.
My little project brings a class of 30+ students to Wikieducator. They range from first year third-level students to third year working in mixed-age teams with three or four members per team. All of their writing assignments for the course are in Wikieducator. Reflection: I require an online reflection on their classroom experience. This combines practical advice like 'don't let the students have the crayons before needed' and also more thoughtful reflection. Wayne suggested that the students might also reflect on the wiki experience and more than half of them did: http://www.wikieducator.org/Wiki_reflections Reasons to come back: For WE to convert students to active users, the material that students contribute must be of long-term value to them. While we academics consider that the materials in our disciplines will be of long-term use to students, the reality is that not all material will resonate with all students. On the one hand I don't require my Community Ecology students to write content for WE because I recognize that some of them will be medical professionals, others will be environmental consultants, and perhaps one or two from a class of 20 will become educators or community ecologists. On the other hand students in my Biology in Elementary Schools course are preparing to be primary school teachers. If they work hard to develop a lesson plan, try it out, reflect on it, and put it in WE, my perhaps naive hope is that they'll be back to WE to use that information. I think it is valuable to have students engage in a broader community and to contribute. I think it benefits the community, but more importantly I think it benefits the students directly. Anything that encourages students to more highly value their work than simply a means of earning a grade is helps move their aspirations to a higher level. Simply by saying 'this is a useful contribution', and 'others will gain by your efforts', we are enforcing the idea that a student is not just a student, but also are a valid contributed to their field. Costs: Not all students are A students. Some contributions will be less than stellar. However, WE is a collaborative medium. None of should be shy about tweaking a page once the WIP tag has been removed. My hope is that when teachers use a lesson plan and find a new angle, they will share that information with the rest of us. Peter and other contributors, thanks for starting a most interesting discussion. Cheers, Declan --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. To visit wikieducator, go to: http://www.wikieducator.org To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
