Kala,+Waseem

=Analysis & Reflection=

What do u think/feel about this collaborative learning environment?
In my opinion, the collaborative learning environment is a very positive learning experience in that students are exposed to a number of different topics, and by collaborating are open to vast amounts of knowledge and learn many new things. Moreover, in the work field, many of us will be collaborating with other colleagues, so it is important to grasp a proper understanding of a collaborative environment.

What are your expectations for yourself?
For my own content I chose Social Bookmarking, a topic not too many people know about. So, I hope to give a proper understanding of social bookmarking, and how it may help others. Also, this being a course on critical analysis of media, I hope to learn a good amount of information about the media by collaborating and reading other people’s work.

If you have previously used wiki in another course, describe what you have previously learned and how you want to expand your understanding.
I used wiki in CCT205, and learned that importance of collaborative writing, and how to properly go about it. The purpose of wiki is to apply knowledge with others, so the end product is something of relevance, and can be used by other people. Whether it be contributing, altering, or merely editing all play an important role in the concept of a wiki.

What can you contribute as an experienced participant?
Being experienced in wiki I have the technical knowledge to help other students with technical problems, and also assist them in the navigation of the wiki. Also, having experience, i know how to structurally organize and add information relevant to others.

How do you choose which postings to contribute or change? What do you look for?
Postings that I contribute are either, ones that I am interested in or ones that have ample amounts of information readily available to research. Pages that are incomplete are also good to edit as not much research is need and contributions can be made quickly and easily.

What are your thoughts on adding, editing or re-arranging other people’s work?
Seeing as this is a wiki and the collaboration aspect of it is key, adding, editing, and re-arranging are crucial for the wiki to be of relevance. It is good to get a second opinion on the content of one’s work; therefore editing other people’s work, and others editing my work will give a second opinion and make the content better. After all, it is a shared effort.

Do you regularly check your own postings for alterations? Has anyone changed your work and how have you felt about it?
I did check regularly to see if anybody had altered/added to the page. One person did add a table of contents, however nobody made changes to the text and information itself. I was surprised to see that nobody made any significant changes because the concept behind wikis is collaboration of information. Maybe nobody made changes because the topic is not known by many people and its not a very interesting topic, and my analysis itself basically covered the important aspects.

Challenges or limitations you experienced while working collaboratively on wiki
A challenge or limitation i experienced while working collaboratively on wiki was that when ever i went to add to information to a topic i was interested in, it was pretty much complete with all the relevant information needed, and i didn't want to add nonsense information because you would have realized that it was total b.s.

Advantages or benefits from participating in this wiki
The advantages and benefits from workin on this wiki was that i had the oppertunity to gain lots of knowledge. Not everything was relevant or important knowledge, but knowledge nonetheless, which would add to my general knowledge and information. A lot of the things i learned by reading these analyses i learned while reading so i can get an idea about the topic so i can add to it.

Things about the course you thought worked well and/or suggested improvements
I think the learning about comics and reflectin on a particular comic was a good aspect of the course. Before this class, i was not a big fan of comics, and i thought they were meant to be a medium for children. I also had no idea what a graphic novel was. This assignment opened my eyes to the world of comics as a medium. The culture jamming assignment was also interesting. My topic was on telecommunication. I learned a lot about the telecommunications industry after beginning this assignment. The wiki was not a new assignment to me as i had done it in CCT205. I learned to appreciate the wiki since CCT205. However, one beef i had with the wiki is that there should be more guidelines, and also ther should be a few deadlines as it would encourage student to begin early and procrastinate. All in all, it was a good course. i enjoyed it a lot. Thank you Mike Jones & David Gelb.

=Contributions:=
 * Bollywood
 * History of Hip Hop
 * Console Wars
 * Prophet Mohammad Cartoons
 * Al-Jazeera
 * First Person Shooter Games
 * Musical Film
 * Forgot others.