Shettlewood,++Claudia

=Significant Contributions Timeline:= November 13, 2006 - Editied some minor grammatical errors on Eva Ye's Analysis & Reflection page November 13, 2006 - Created [|Power Puff Girls] Page November 16, 2006 - Added the Yahoo! logo, emoticons, and acronyms to the Chatrooms page November 16, 2006 - Added a comment to the Reggae music Page November 16, 2006 - Added a comment to the Fashion magazine page November 16, 2006 - Added to the hi5 page under features and similar sites November 16, 2006 - Created Gospel Music page

= = = = = = =Analysis n Reflection:=

1. When first encountering wiki at the beginning of the course. > > >
 * What do you think/feel about this collaborative learning environment?
 * What are your expectations for yourself ?
 * If you have previously used wiki in another course, then describe what you have previously learned and how you want expand your understanding.
 * What can you contribute as an experienced participant?

This is my first experience using this course wiki. When I first started using this wiki, I found it to be a bit overwhelming but after a while, I was able to get used to the idea of using wikispaces. I believe that this is a great way to interact with other fellow classmates, as well as the instructors and this is a great little community as a whole. The reason why I enjoy this collaborative learning environment is because this is not just a course website but this involves everyone in the classroom to get involved and be heard. Many people may feel shy and timid to participate in a classroom setting but this wiki allows those barriers to be broken and this helps to incorporate the whole class at large. I found that some of the features on wikispaces were a bit of a challenge to get used to. It took me a while to figure out how to incorporate the links into my navigation section on my page. I am aware that CCT205H5 and CCT333H5 also uses wikispaces, so having had this opportunity to be in a class where the wiki is used has definately equipped me and prepared me for those courses that also uses the wiki. I have not been involved in an online community that is similar to wikispaces. The only other site that I am familiar with that also uses a wiki is wikipedia but I have never participated in an online community such as this before so it has been a great experience. Overall, I do feel that this is a great way to interact with other classmates and it breaks many barriers that probably would not have been broken if this course was just on a regular course website such as CCNET or WEBCT. This is a very interactive community which is beneficial to the other students. The only con I have about this site and other wikis is the fact that people can just come in and edit and change other people's work which in turn is their own intellectual property.

2. Think about the following and answer to the best of your ability: > >
 * How do you choose which postings to contribute or change? What do you look for?
 * What are your thoughts on adding, editing or re-arranging other people's work?
 * Do you regularly check your own postings for alterations? Has anyone changed your work and how have you felt about it?

Generally, I really don't go on other people's pages to intentionally edit and change their work. I do however, go and contribute to other people's wikis if they share a similar interest as my own or if I find that their view is way off, I usually comment on why and give my own personal opinion without judging other people's own perosnal beliefs. The only changes I do is editing for grammer and punctuation. I'm not too keen on the idea of completely changing someone else's thoughts that they may have spent some time on to collaborate and put together. I believe that people are entitled to their own opinions and therefore, I only edit for grammer and minor spelling errors. I've never erased anyone's work however, I may just add a few thoughts of my own that corelates to the individual's opinion, leaving their original thoughts as they were. Due to the fact that this course wiki is interactive and involves writing as a mean of communication, people are bound to make minor spelling, grammer, and puctuation errors so I usually just fix those minor mistakes for them. My background is writing and I write my own music so I would not appreciate anyone to tamper with my personal intellectual property just because they feel that it is not up to par with their personal taste and liking. Therefore, I do not do major alterations to another one's work. I do not usually check if anyone has made alterations to my work but I do appeciate people who will help with my minor spelling errors if there are any. As well, I would not appreciate those people who feel the need to intentionally make changes and revamp my personal thoughts just because they feel like it. I think that defeats the purpose of having "A PERSONAL THOUGHT". If I'm asked to write a personal thought on a particular subject that I feel strongly about, I would expect it to remain as being my perosnal thought and not altered to becoming someone else's personal thought which originated from my own. Other than all of the above that I have mentioned, I do believe that wikispaces is a great online community, especially as a course website.

3. As a final reflection for the course, post your thoughts and ideas on:
 * challenges or limitations you experienced while working collaboratively on wiki
 * advantages or benefits from participating in this wiki
 * things about the course you thought worked well and/or suggested improvements

Well, I believe that the challenges that I have experienced throughout the course using this wiki is keeping up to date with edits and maintaining this course wiki. Although this website allows for anyone to edit, change, and rearrange other people's work, I still didn't feel comfortable with doing so. I believe that a significant challenge was to edit someone else's page but at the same time, not trying to edit it too much for the original idea of the writer to be lost. When editing other people's page, I still kept in mind that this is their itellectual property so I mainly just looked out for minor grammatical errors that consisted of spelling, grammer, puntuation, proper sentence structure, and so on. I think it was also a challenge to get used to a course site that consisted a wiki because this was a new experience for me. I was not used to a course site that allowed the students to actually contribute to the building and maintenance of the course site. I was used to using CCNET, WEBCT and PORTAL as a course website so now being in a class where I actually contributed to the course website was a bit of a challenge at first but I was able to get used to it. This course also consisted of a lot of work. I found that to be both a pro and a con. It was a pro because it allows you to hand in and contribute as much as you can and in the end, I find that it will help with my mark because some courses just has 2 major assignments and 1 final test and that's it but this course gave numerous opportunities to contribute throughtout the semester and not have everything due at once. This wiki is pretty laid back which is something that I like. Although there were deadlines and due dates for submissions, this is a course that one can due at their own pace. As long as they have access to a computer and the internet, this can be done at home or school and people can do a little at a tiime or they can do everything at once if they want. Advantages and benefits from participating in this wiki is the fact that every student can be heard and voice their opinions. Students can write about whatever they want and how they truely feel about the course. I actually hated doing these reflections but I actually believe these reflections are a great way to get feedback on how students are liking the course and if there is any room for improvments. The other course sites that I've mentioned about does not allow the students to voice their opinions, only at the end of the semester when we do the in class evaluations. At least this way, the professor is able to see from the beginning how we like the course and how are we doing mid-point through the semester, and how we felt overall about the course towards the end of the semester. This course encouraged the whole class to get involved and interact with each other. I think this is better than a regular classroom setting because everyone is able to be heard whereas other courses don't involve much much class participation so this allowed everyone to feel comfortable at be opened to expressing the way they feel.