Mallon,+Andrew

=__Andrew's Page__=

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__Analysis and Reflection__

 * **What do you think/feel about this collaborative learning environment ?**

First approaching the wiki, I was a little apprehensive about contributing to this collaborative learning environment. I've used Wikipedia, the be all end all of wiki collaborations, and I've heard the many criticisms of it, so I was concerned as to whether these critiques of the wiki system (vandalism, unfactual information, and the like) would be translated over to this wiki. Luckily, this wiki has more control over who can post on the board, and we are not anonymous unlike Wikipedia. There is a direct and purposeful intent for this wiki system, and that's to further our education and learn more about understanding media. There is no reason for vandalism, and it is in our best interest as students in this course to put factual and pertinent information on the wiki.

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 * **What are your expectations for yourself ?**

I expect myself to periodically check the wiki over, look at entries that interest myself. I also hope to go over entries that I personally have a sense of knowledge of (for example, specific music genres, djing, computers, ecetera) and add any knowledge unmentioned into the certain wikis. I hope to contribute meaningful information to the system and help the greater community learn things about subjects they may not know a lot about.

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 * **How do you choose which postings to contribute or change? What do you look for?**

I look for entries that peek my interest (for example, music genres that I listen to). I also look at entries about items that I encounter or use in everyday life (E-mail, the Internet, online social services such as Myspace and Facebook). I then think of whaT I would say in an entry about a certain topic, then examine that said topic. If I find anything that wasn't said that I would have explained about a topic, I would add it to the discussion. If I feel something is mentioned that is not relevant to the discussion, or not discussed in a 'neutral' manner, I will remove it from the topic to help eliminate bias.


 * **What are your thoughts on adding, editing or re-arranging other people's work?**

I think the idea of adding and re-arranging other's peoples work is necessary to the greater benefit of the community. Things aren't always arranged in such a manner that is beneficial to learning. People should not take offense to someone changing what they have wrote. The original entry is merely a foundation for the rest of the users and the community as a whole to build and learn upon.


 * **Do you regularly check your own postings for alterations? Has anyone changed your work and how have you felt about it?**

I don't regularly check my pages for alterations. I'll check maybe once or twice throughout the term to see the activity and if anything has been changed. I haven't encountered an instance throughout this term where people have changed my information (that I know to be correct) and put something incorrect in its' place. No one has changed my work that I have added to numerous pages, and I don't know what to consider about that. Was my work not changed because it is factually correct and can't be improved anymore? Or perhaps people just did not care to totally read over the work I have done, and have left it in wiki purgatory? Regardless, I would have no ill resolve towards whomever decides to alter my entries if they choose to do so.


 * **Challenges or limitations you experienced while working collaboratively on wiki**

Some of the limitations I did not particularly like about this certain type of wiki was issues that occured when multiple people were editing a certain entry at a time. Let's say one person is editing a certain entry, and I decide that I also want to edit this entry at the same time, not knowing the other person is working on it. The first person finishes their editing as I am still in the progress of mine, and when I finish mine, I go to save. As I save it, I get a warning pop up saying that the entry has been modified since I last began working on it. I can choose to stop editing, or overwrite their changes. It's unfortunate that my edit would overwrite the previous entry that was completed shortly before mine.

I also found the challenege of trying to accurately discuss something that I have an intimate knowledge of (for example, DJing) without running afoul of plagarism regulations. How can one properly source inherent information that they have taken in over the years and apply to a model such as a wiki? I am concerned about writing a topic that I have experience in and not being able to sufficiently cite it in the professor's eyes.


 * **Advantages or benefits from participating in this wiki**

I feel that participating in this wiki has been a benefit to all of us in managing time. Looking at the fact that a large amount of us spend over 2 hours a day on our computers, talking to people online, watching videos, doing various acitivities, etc, we can use community building on the wiki as an extension of the everyday activities that we participate in. We all benefit by participating through learning about other facets of media that we normally would not have learned about.


 * **Things about the course you thought worked well and/or suggested improvements**

I feel the wiki solution worked well in the learning process. I would suggest a little clarification on what we should take away from lectures and the wiki. The course title of 'Understanding Media' is such a broad title, and obviously one cannot take in everything in only the time period of a semester. The lectures were informative, though the couple of times that we ended at 7:25, I wish we had ended just slightly sooner, because some of us could have got on the 7:15 bus back to UTM, and instead had to wait until the 9:15 bus. That's not really a course issue though.

Contributions
Created IPTV Entry Cleanup and additions to Internet Radio Entry Additions to Podcasting Entry Cleanup of Google Entry Removed content from Gmail entry, added it to Google entry Cleaned up Adbusters entry, added a bit of text and link Added content, fix style issues in Instant Messengers Added relevant link to Radio entry Cleaned up the How to Get Screwed Entry Added information about subgenres of Progressive Created Revver entry and added content