Something Wiki this way comes (NY Times article, February 21)

[Margherita Long]

In response to Christine's email:

I've been following the KineJapan wiki thread with interest because this
quarter I've added "google jockey" to the assignments in modern Japanese
literature.

While two students give reports on a critical essay about our text, a third
surfs the web and spins sites the way a dj would spin records, looking up
terms and providing historical, cultural and especially visual background.

Afterwards, the Google Jockey writes a "GJ Report," evaluating sites visited
(we keep track of them using deli.cio.us) and adding to the list by
compiling a "top five" for the text in question.  We keep them on our ilearn
site, and sometimes refer back to them during lectures.

It's something I learned about at a UC Humanities Research Institute seminar
in Irvine last summer.

Alan Liu was there, presenting his research on student use of Wikipedia.
His "policy statement" is hard to track down on the web at the moment, but
it's one of the most definitive to date:

http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/1395/wise-words-on-wikipedia

So far the students seem less impressed by Google Jockeying than I was last
summer.  I have a hard time getting them to be critical about the
information they find on the web, and the rich conversations I'd hoped to
spur about the difference between what our critical essays offer and what
the net offers have been slow to materialize.  Maybe it seems too obvious?

But there have also been some great moments. And it's been fun showing
students what they can find using Wikipedia Japan, Google Japan, etc.

Mimi
 



On 2/27/07 9:10 AM, "Christine Marran" <marran at umn.edu> wrote:

> In response to Anne's query about wiki:
> 
> I hope that Mimi Long doesn't mind me mentioning this but in informal
> conversation she mentioned that she holds in-class presentations by
> students pairs or groups (?) who present on how they have used a
> wikipedia site. (Mimi, I hope that I haven't gotten this wrong--perhaps
> you could expand).  It sounded like a good idea to me because it gives
> students and instructors a chance to talk about the challenges of using
> wikipedia.
> 
> Christine
> 
> 
> 
> Joseph Tomei wrote:
>> A colleague and I use wikis in our ESL classes, and have just  finished
>> a brief article that will appear in the TESOL Essential  Teacher
>> publication. I'm not sure about attachments, and it is a bit  far afield
>> from the list topic, so I have sent a copy to Anne and am  happy to send
>> a copy to anyone else interested. Quick summary,  teachers who want to
>> use bigger wikis in class should try to create  class wikis so they can
>> understand the dynamics and challenges before  letting students use
>> 'name' wikis. This advice is probably not as  important for native
>> speakers interacting in their own language, but  I think it still applies.
>> 
>> It might be worthwhile to set up a Japanese cinema wiki that would
>> allow a little more detail than IMDB/Wikipedia. I'd be happy to help  if
>> others were interested.
>> 
>> cheers
>> joe tomei
>> 
>> 
>> Kumamoto Gakuen Daigaku
>> Department of Foreign Languages
>> Oe 2 chome, 5-1,  Kumamoto 862-8680 JAPAN
>> (81) (0)96-364-5161 x1410
>> fax (81) (0)96-372-0702
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> .
>> 
>