I filmed an hour of the session today for the wikigroup and I had one collegue in observing what we are doing. She is into CMC too. I invited the head of faculty to come to my class but she is busy today so promised to pop in soon.
I could see that were quiet today. It might be the camera or the exam they have later in the day. Apparently, it is the weather- cloudy for the first time this year!!!- as they said and because it is end of the week!
They were very busy writing and they were talking to each other to see who wrote what for them to finish the topic in lesson 5 as it is done in pairs. They were moving and talking to each other to discuss things. I wish there was a chat room through the wikispaces page so that they would chat to each other online instead of moving around.
I noticed that they are using google translate to translate words from their mother tongue to English. They are facing difficulty with the lack of vocab in English. Some of them asked me for the translation and I had to explain that some words can’t be translated as they are so they have to find more appropriate words to use in English.
They are facing -and I am too- a frustrating thing in the discussions as the edit option is not available. So when we notice an error after publishing a post, we have to delete the whole thing and write it once again- in my case- but students have to write the whole thing again with the new changes- or copying it and making the changes.
I did ask them to write what they thought of using wikis (good-bad- and suggestions) in their personal pages as separate discussions for future changes and improvements.
I had a student today who could not understand the difference between the causes of a problem and the problems caused by a thing in the topics he was supposed to write with his peers in lesson 5 and 6. His peers then in both groups drew his attention to that and poor he had to write his parts for both essays again! I think it is a good practice to direct him to think properly of the writing prompt for the next task although it is a very tiring process for him!
He added his comments in the discussion about the problems of hacking in HOME and made the same mistakes so his peers talked to him in person in class to change them so he added a new post in the same discussion with the problems.
Prof..I wish to start writing the methdology chapter once again, but I need your help. I wish to get a skelton of how this chapter should be. Would it be possible to get a copy of a thesis that would be of a similar topic of mine to see how I should have it done? I would like to discuss all the case studies but I can’t see how I can split each one into all the different parts in the methdology chapter. Please advise.
Are we meeting this week?
Best wishes
Fatima
Françoise Blin said,
November 19, 2009 @ 8:12 am
This is a very interesting post. Your observations give a very good description of what happens in class and they show the complexity of collaboration between learners.
The questions you are asking are also very good. I won’t answer them all now, but here are a few questions to help you move forward.
1) Editing discussion posts: you need to ask yourself if mistakes have to be corrected everywhere. The wiki page and the discussion page serve two different purposes and it may not be that important to have all posts perfectly written. Making mistakes when speaking and writing is normal, and while not everybody may agree, most people would feel that you don’t have to correct everything. You could see the discussion as spontaneous writing and encourage students to read their drafts before they submit it. It would also give you a good idea of what their knowledge is when writing with very little assistance. The main thing here is to shift students’ mindsets and to make them feel that it is okay to make mistakes. Accuracy can then be the focus of the wiki page proper. There, you can insist that errors are corrected and reflected upon.
2) Methodology chapter: you could start by reading my own thesis. The topic was slightly different but I too had two different studies and I had to bring everything together. If you look at chapter 4 and chapter 5, you will see how I did it. Obviously, yours will be different, but I think it can give you an idea on how to bring different approaches together. Don’t forget however that your methodology has to link to the theoretical framework you adopt to look at and interpret your data. I used Activity Theory (at a time when there was not that much written about it in the context of learning and language learning). A bit complex, but very useful all the same. If you get the books on Vygotsky I recommended, you may get some useful insights on how to approach your analysis, which would help your methodology.
The one thing you have to remember is not to bring some findings or observations in the methodology chapter(s).
3) Talking this week: I have blocked every Thursday 1-2pm Irish Time (4-5pm your time). But if you prefer, I can talk to you tomorrow at 10am my time (1pm your time). Just let me know what suits you best. We can shift the Thursday to Friday if it is better for you.
In the meantime, keep up the good work. I can see that you are getting onto something very very interesting, and not just for me but for anybody working in this area. So it is very promising.
Talk to you soon!
Françoise