Issues


 * toc

Possible problems and suggested solutions**

This is a page for us to discuss any anticipated problems and their possible solutions. It can work like a FAQ page so that when we get the wiki for learners going, we know what to expect and how to handle the possible problems.

=1. How can we get students to collaborate and talk about what the other students have written?=

I believe we can ask students to write comments about things they find interesting and add the information about their country on the pages. Once many students have already written on the page, we can ask student to create a voicethread, a glogster, a slideshare, a video, or simply another wiki page with the things he or she considers interesting, pointing out similarities and differences among countries. This can be used when grading the students, as long as his or her participation in the wiki. What do you think?

=2. Setting the guidelines and instructions=

One of the most important things will be defining clear guidelines and instructions for students so that they know exactly what to write on the wiki. I think we can use the pages we create to test the instructions and see how clear they are and how we're going to change them prior to creating the students' wiki. What do you think? Feel free to edit the instructions I've written at the top of each one of the pages. The clearer it is for our students, the better.

=3. Different ages and levels=

How are we going to deal with the different ages and levels? We can either have one different wiki for the different levels, or we can simply create different pages within the same wiki. What is your opinion?

This is just a preliminary opinion, but in general, I prefer not to separate by level too much when something is collaborative. My idea is that if a discussion gets too complicated for learners of lower learners to participate, maybe they'll still be able to follow it with some help and perhaps start themselves a parallel one if they're really into the topic. Otherwise I believe in waiting and seeing in these cases. I think learners of all levels can benefit from exchanges with people of other levels.

Henrick: I agree with what you said there. Perhaps the best way for us to truly understand what may happen is by letting things happen and take it from there. If we have clear instructions, students from different levels may collaborate with one another in order to get their message across. Besides, I'm planning on using the wiki to substitute part of their grades, which is given through tests mainly. Hopefully, they'll feel a bit more engaged if they know what they're doing here will be taken into account. Bia: Sounds like we're on the same page on this.

When it comes to age, I have to admit I'm finding it difficult to make a decision. I can see adults interacting with YLs on some topics -the adults may actually be family friends or relatives- and I don't see much harm in leaving that to fate. Tweens and teens...I think those are two groups that would gel with some difficulty. Teens will want to have their own space I imagine, but there'll be areas where they (some of them) may enjoy to share with younger adults, for example.

Probably different pages on the same wiki would be nicer and more effective, in my view.

Henrick: The idea of having only one wiki sounds good as we'll have all the students collaborating on the same page. Even though teens would probably like to have their own space, I suppose they won't mind sharing what we'll ask them to share with adults. This is learning in its purest form - learning for learning's sake. Bia: Couldn't agree more. =4 Underage Learners= I've been working on a story on [], which is aimed mainly at YLs (up to 11 maybe?) and noticed that when you choose to collaborate with a minor, there's an option to email the child's guardian as well as the child him/herself. Do you think we should do something like that when learners request to join?

Henrick: I like that thought, but I'm not sure this is an option in wikispaces. However, as most things will be public on the wiki, it'll be easy for parents to follow the discussion. In addition to that, we, teachers, we'll be monitoring what goes on in the wiki. What do you think? Bia: I think perhaps we could ask parents to sign a notice stating whether they agree to their children taking part on this and confirming also that they (parents) have the necessary information (wiki address, own children's usernames). On the one hand we'd be sure parents know that their children are being monitored and on the other hand, it may even encourage some parents to get more involved if their children agree. How does that sound?

Hadley: I was part of a Twitter conversation last night on #ptchat about getting the parents to be part of the collaboration, using their interest/concern for their kids to enhance the students learning. Could we have part of the wiki be a place for parents to share some aspect of their learning experience - favorite class, toughest assignment - and then have the kids respond.

Bia: I think that's a great idea Hadley. And that's also why I like the idea of having a Ning and a wiki connected and complementing one another. Some people will feel more comfortable with one format (I do with Nings, and I think Henrick does with wikis :-)) but perhaps parents could have their own page in the wiki to leave comments and that could go into the Ning in the chat area for those who feel they have just something very small to say or want to say it straightaway and without thinking so much about text organization.

Bia (again): I've learnt that wikis can be completely private, just like blogs. I think it could be a good idea for the younger learners (under 13?) to interact safely. What do you think?

How would you feel about having a "hands on" area for some of the topics? For example, in the Cartoons area, we could have a page with links not only to sites where strips can be read, but also to sites which can help learners create their own cartoons, or even write up a set of guidelines as to how they can get started.

If the area is Books, then they could do some creative writing and upload it on the projects page of that area. It'd be a safe environment for them to try out the efect of their finished products, but they'd have a real audience at the same time -and at any point in the process they could use the discussion area for technical (or any kind of) advice and process feedback from peers and teachers (parents?)

Henrick: I loved the idea. I think it'd be great for those creative students who are up to the challenge of coming up with their own comics. I believe YL would probably be more into it than teens and adults, but it'd be a lot of fun to see what these kids would come up with. This means we'll need to have a projects page, as you said. What about naming it [page name]-projects?

Bia: Sounds great! I've been looking at some pretty cool sites that might engage teens (there was one that turned text into music but had to be pulled down unfortunately) as well (I need to sort them out), but, yes, YLs like doing creative stuff and showing it.

Hadley: Teens love to create a glogsters. We could have them introduce their country/region that way.

Bia: I like the idea. I've just joined a group for "alumni" of TheConsultants-e and the very first thing we were asked to do was to create a Glogster. It's so much nicer and engaging than forum introductions! Voicethread also works nice; we did that on the Digital materials prep techniques EVO course. Maybe we could use them on different weeks as the info shared is different.

I was also thinking (on the basis of the courses I've taken and how I've felt) that perhaps we could create worksheets/guides or some sort of document learners can consult to explore the different resources, and try to establish basic tasks for familiarization (it was tough to spell!) and then extra challenges for those who liked using it. We could have a special area to be used as an archive for tasks.

Also deadlines; even if then they don't matter all that much having them may structure participation a bit and make participants feel less at a loss. Henrick will be making participation count for for the overall grade, I don't know how you feel about deadlines? My learners will not be evaluated on this -the ones from the school because I don't get to make that kind of choice, and my private students because it's usually 1-to-1 so sometimes we don't even have tests. I think they'll all love to see other learners' countries and regions depicted and will get engaged in showing theirs because they'll have a real audience with real curiosity and questions.

Hadley: My students will also not be getting grade, but I think that deadlines help with the level of engagement and in moving the conversation forward. Henrick: The grading will be up to each teacher, I guess. I'll be using it as formative assessment and it'll add to their tests grades. The idea of deadlines is crucial if we want the project to be successful. We can't simply expect them to do things at their own pace, regardless of grades. I agree with you two. I think we're on the final stages of the preparation for the wiki. I've just created the wiki for us to use with students (http://crossculturalelt.wikispaces.com) and you can all join. We'll then be using this one only for teachers to share ideas and resources that our learners can use, and leave the other one for our students to work on.

I also like the idea of having some sort of tutorial so that students don't feel lost when we ask them to work with any of the tools they may have at hand. How can we do that? One thought I have is working together with them, showing them how to use each one of them. Another possibility is a screencast. Yet another possibility is a link to the tutorials of each site - they usually have one.

Bia: I agree about deadlines and the need for tutorials (also about grading being up to each teacher). Regarding tutorials, I think variety would be nice. So I'd say let's use everything Henrick mentions (not for the same thing, of course). I think two basic tutorials we need are how to edit and navigate the wiki and how to navigate and interact in the Ning (for the Ning, I'd suggest explaining clearly that they can control who gets to see what with the settings for privacy, and that the default for their profile is (usually?) "anyone" so they'll probably want to change it to "members")

I think most of the topics lend themselves to something like that. As I'm into comics these days, I'll try (do my best) to put together an example and then have it ready after New Year's in case you think it's a good idea (and if it turns out not to be so, we can always delete it, right? :)

=6 CC License, copyright issues, plagiarism etc.= As our students will be contributing to the wiki with different kinds of materials, do you think it would be useful to have a page explaining the basics for using other people's photos, etc. and perhaps adding a few links to sites with visuals whose creators have given permission to use? Perhaps also include ideas for them to create their own videos and photos and how to quote text appropriately?

Henrick: This could go into the main page, what do you think? I agree with you. It's important that kids learn how to quote and use other people's materials. Do you have anything in mind already?

Hadley: Here is a great site that I found on Twitter yesterday with links to photos that can be used online: http://copyrightfriendly.wikispaces.com/

Bia: I think it's a great finding! Looks very comprehensive and user-friendly Henrick: OK, I agree. Now we need to find the proper place to put it both on the ning and on the wiki.

Bia: I think it's a good idea to put it in the main page. I've got a few links in mind (again,need to sort them out) but the one that struck me is Steal this Preso It was made by a film producer and explains why he thinks it's important to respect these issues, offers some alternative sites where authors have explicitly made their material available for re-use and has a cool intro with the guy dressed as Johnny Depp in Pirates of the C. That would grab their attention,I think. Then we can include CC License information (I think Flickr has a nice and clear page for that) and also encourage them to use whatever tools they find (digital or not) to make their own materials (I've uploaded 1min videos made with my mobile on to a blog and they do the job). We'll need to guide them a lot in that I think, but that's an important concept to understand, in my opinion.(you can find the video in various sites -the original one is blocked at the moment for some reason but the links to it and a related site are on the site I've made the link to).