Marjorie+Davies

=Analysis and Reflection on Use of Wikispaces=

Marjorie Davies
2nd Year CCIT and Professional Writing & Communication Major

Summary
Over the course of the last few weeks, I have helped to contribute to a Wikispace for the first time in my life. This assignment has enabled me to create pages that I have filled with content based on various "Digital Innovation" topics. I have created four content pages in total, each with approximately 1-1.5 pages of written content on them that I have researched using the Internet and course textbooks. These pages are entitled "Silicon Valley," "e-Books," "Digital Photography," and "Digital Library." I have also created a fifth page entitled "Wiki Assignment Feedback" (changed to "Assignment Feedback") located under "Wiki Assignment" in the navigation bar, where students are able to provide feedback based on their experience with this assignment. I myself have written a brief comment on that page, as well as on the page entitled "Test 1 Feedback," located under "CCT205: Course Work" in the navigation bar.

Along with the creation of these pages, I have added these pages under the "Table of Contents" menu located in the navigation bar. The essence of the Wikispace is to provide content and edit other user’s pages. As part of this assignment, I have edited a number of pages. I have made content changes to "Photography and Digital Innovation", "e-Learning" and "Web 1.0" pages. I have also made content edits to the various topics that students added to my "Digital Photography" page based on the ideas that they presented. As well as content edits, I have made layout changes to the following pages: "Digital Innovation Within the Automotive Industry", "Bluetooth", "Table of Contents", "Web 1.0", and "Chat". On a number of pages, including some of the ones that I created, I added a section entitled "See Also" where I made internal links available to other relevant topics as well as an internal "Table of Contents" page relating to the headings within the individual pages. I believe that my edits have not only made the presentation of the Wikispace more appealing to the viewer, but I have also added relevant and important content to the Wikispace topics.

Reflection
This is the most enjoyable assignment that I have come across in university and I would highly recommend using it in future classes. This Wikispace assignment brings a new meaning to the idea of collaborative work, and I believe that working in a Wikispace is far more beneficial to students than working on a regular group assignment. The Wikispace forces students to participate in the group by tracking the submission of each individual, and I find that the Wikispace benefits the students who do not work well in traditional group settings because they are able to contribute their work without feeling shy or insecure. The Wikispace brings out the best in each student's ability to contribute to group work.

Suggestions
My advice to future Wikispace students is to start early and stay on task. The development of this Wikispace in the last few weeks has been overwhelming. The number of entries in the Table of Contents has soared, as well as the new pages created under the Navigation bar. The CCT205 Wikispace had a slow start, as many students were confused about the assignment’s requirements. In future, I think a better understanding of what the assignment is all about would help the Wikispace take off at a faster speed. I also believe that while this assignment did have a slow start, the content produced at the end is amazing. Once students grasped the concept of the Wikispace assignment, they were able to feed on the ideas of early postings as well as develop their own ideas on how this Wikispace should develop. In future courses, I predict that the same pattern of content production and development will show—slow at the start and rapid at the end. That is the essence of the procrastinating student, and that is the result of the Wikispace development.

Although the requirements for content were to create one page containing two to three pages of information, I believe that the structure of the Wikispace leans towards two to three pages being created containing approximately one page of information. While Prof. Jones wanted to avoid a lot of pages with little content, I believe that the editing process of the Wikispace favours smaller doses of information as the edits of other students help each individual page grow with content. There are numerous topics, which developed from one idea, and creating new pages to tackle these ideas and providing internal links to related topics are better than listing them all in one big page. If you look at Wikipedia, you will find that the content on most pages is not very long, yet there are various internal and external links that a person can click on to find out more information on that specific topic and other relating topics. I believe that this structure needs to be followed when students design their own Wikispace in order to have a user-friendly space that everything can enjoy!

February 5, 2006

 * Edited the layout of the "Table of Contents" page

February 7, 2006

 * Added "Silicon Valley" to the "Table of Contents" menu
 * Created a new page called "Silicon Valley" and contributed approximately 1.5 pages of content and a list
 * Edited the layout of the "Digital Innovation Within the Automotive Industry" page
 * Edited the layout of the Navigation bar by changing the name back to "Table of Contents"

February 8, 2006

 * Made a layout edit to the "Tests" page

February 15, 2006

 * Added my Aliase name and my real name to the "Aliases" page

February 23, 2006

 * Added "Wiki Assignment Feedback" to the navigation bar, under the heading "Wiki Assignment"
 * Created a new page called "e-Books" and contributed approximately 1 page of content
 * Created a new page called "Digital Library" and contributed approximately 1 page of content
 * Created a new page called "Digital Photography" and contributed approximately 1 page of content
 * Created a new page called "Wiki Assignment Feedback" for the class to provide comments on this assignment
 * Edited the "Bluetooth" page by making layout changes
 * Edited the "Photography and Digital Innovation" page by adding more content and changing the wording of existing content
 * Edited the "Silicon Valley" page I created on February 7, 2006
 * Edited the "Table of Contents" navigation menu to add the newly created page "e-Books"
 * Edited the "Table of Contents" navigation menu to add the newly created page "Digital Library"
 * Edited the "Table of Contents" navigation menu to add the newly created page "Digital Photography"
 * Linked my "Digital Photography" page to "Bluetooth"
 * Listed my Contributions to the CCT205 Wikispace under "Analysis & Reflection"
 * Wrote a comment on the "Test 1 Feedback page"
 * Wrote a comment on the "Wiki Assignment Feedback" page

February 24, 2006

 * Added comments under Davies, Marjorie for the "Analysis & Reflection" page
 * Edited the "e-Book" page by adding the headers "Advantages" and "Disadvantages" to the content
 * Edited the "e-Learning" page by adding a "See Also" header with internal links to other relevant pages
 * Edited the "e-Learning" page by adding content under the "Disadvantages" heading
 * Edited the "Web 1.0" page and added it to the "Table of Contents" menu
 * Listed my Contributions to the CCT205 Wikispace under "Analysis & Reflection"

February 27, 2006

 * Added a Table of Contents list to the "Chat" page
 * Edited the content and layout of the "Digital Photography" page
 * Edited the content and layout of the "Web 1.0" page by adding a "See Also" heading with internal links, as well as other layout edits dealing with presentation
 * Edited the layout of the "Chat" page by adding a "See Also" heading with internal links

February 28, 2006

 * Edited the content and layout of the "Digital Photography" page
 * Edited the layout of the "e-Books" page
 * Listed my Contributions to the CCT205 Wikispace under "Analysis & Reflection"