UserPage:steveRoberts

Steve Roberts's User Page

Hi my name is Steve Roberts. I'm enrolled in FET8611_2008_2 Emerging Environments for Learning. I considered ePortfolios, authentic interactivity, and Adobe Air for my first project in FET8611 and eventually settled on ePortfolios. My final project in FET8611 is Using a wiki for collaborative note-taking by second language learners.

Visit any of the sites and contribute, if you wish.

FET8611: Project 1

My Proposal for the ePortfolios page

I put up three pages in knowledgeGarden as possible candidates for my facilitated page project: ePortfolios, Adobe Air, and Authentic Interactivity. The Authentic Interactivity page got no response; the Adobe Air page got one comment; and the ePortfolio page generated an addition to the page and several comments, so I have decided to go forward with the ePortfolio page.

I’ve spent a fair bit of time figuring out Mahara’s portfolio system, noting its limitations and advantages compared to my preferred way of creating custom portfolios using HTML and CSS. I also began trying some things in YouTube, noting its limitations in the type of media it accepts. As a result, I have decided to focus the page on comparing and contrasting the various ePortfolio options, including various Web 2.0 tools, Mahara, custom web pages, and Flash.

In comparing the various options, I will set up categories for evaluation. These include: supported media, ability to add meaningful descriptions, customization, development time, and portfolio lifetime. During exploration it is hoped that more categories will suggest themselves, or be contributed by the community. The end results could be summarized in a table for quick reference to provide a valuable resource for the learning community.

The ePortfolio tools I will start with include: Mahara, YouTube, DeviantArt, mySpace, Facebook, custom HTML web pages, and custom Flash web pages. The community will be invited to add their experiences with any of these tools and to add any other tools they have used.

There is already some good information on the page that needs to be chunked better. An introduction will be required given the new focus and would include the new questions that are being asked about portfolios. I will need links to various sections in the page to make navigation easier. I’d like a section on ePortfolio resources, with a list of links and a section with good examples of ePortfolios that note what tool was used. Each tool would have it’s own section, and there would be a summary chart that compares the tools at the end.

I will encourage participation by posting an invitation to contribute sent to my work group and to the other course members.

- 13 August 2008

FET8611: Project 2

Proposal for the Using a wiki for collaborative note-taking by second language learners page

My proposal for project 2 is to study group note-taking using a wiki or something similar with my first year students. As second language students, they are loath to write notes and when they do, they generally write poorly and sometimes get the information wrong. Even in subsequent years, projects like design notebooks are generally handled poorly. I'd like to break the class in groups (possibly allowing students with strong English skills to attempt their own, for comparative purposes), and have each group collaboratively post and edit class notes to a wiki like WetPaint. I would set up the groups and include myself in each group so I can monitor their progress. WetPaint keeps track of each member's contributions, so that I can make sure each student is contributing and will allow me to make comments about how they can improve. The students too, can monitor their relative contributions.

The idea is that they should be able to learn from each other within the group, assisting each other with spelling, grammar and content, and by monitoring other groups and through my comments. I'm not sure how I will handle the possibility of copying between groups aside from insisting that each group use their own wording. I would only be able to report on the formative assessment of these notes and survey the students for their thoughts and reflections about the process, as project 2 will end before we reach midterm and our first month's progress will be hampered somewhat by Ramadan.
- 24 August 2008


Stephen Roberts

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