Digital Doodling

How to describe the users — Interested in technology, generous about sharing knowledge of photography, visually attuned, and enthusiastic for class subject matter except the writing requirements — this describes BVHS digital photography students from last year, and will likely apply to the new crop in September. Adding a tendency to procrastinate and a wide range of writing or language abilities to the audience description may explain their lack of enthusiasm for most writing assignments in an art class, that can occasionally  be dull as ditch water. To overcome their aversion to writing and tap into that enthusiasm for sharing and technology, I’ll make a wiki the three periods of students will fill and edit with information about outstanding photographers and a glossary of photographic terms. Perhaps they can also organize and post links to exceptional websites.

What results do I hope the activity produces? — Reflective, discerning, self-confident, knowledgable photography students. Editing the wiki and contributing new entries will encourage students to read the information multiple times, resulting in reviewing and refining their own knowledge of the subject, and possibly their writing skills. The wiki will reinforce student awareness of how easy it is to post accurate or biased information on web sites, encouraging them to evaluate accuracy of other web sources. Emphasis on respecting copyrights and how to cite sources of images is a skill they will develop while creating their class wiki.

What advantage does the wiki have, over producing a standard web page or simple power point presentation? Text editing tools are easily recognized by high school students and learning to use a wiki site is very quick with limited decisions necessary about style or layout.   A wetpaint.com wiki site is advertisement free for education applications. Page “to do list” focuses students on what needs to be accomplished or completed on each page. As the teacher, I appreciate the ability to see who contributes specific information. If anything inappropriate is done, I’ll be able to discuss it privately with the offending party, rather than wasting everyone’s class time trying to identify the responsible individual.

Is this something that already exists? — I have seen blogs and wikis that are similar, done by individuals or by large groups. They can become cumbersome and occasionally biased. The collaborative process gives students pride of ownership of a product that can be shared with family and friends without worrying about what version of software is used. The wiki’s preferences will be set to allow anyone to view the site, but editing abilities, and wiki membership will be restricted to class members.

What drivers may limit participants sucess? — Students may still choose not to particpate, or may resent someone changing their contributions. These are outside of teacher control, because they speak more to individual personality and maturity level than to instruction or course management. Because wikis inherently allow time for brainstorming, reflection and revision I believe they can be valuable for students developing writing and language skills whether they are a native English speaker or ELL student.