All Things Adult Education Wikibook Assignment
From Adult Education
AGED 5123: All Things Adult Education WikiBook Assignment
(C) Dr. Kathleen Kelsey, 2010
Points: 10 points per article x 2 articles= 20 points total
Contents |
Due Dates
- First original article: Solo or Team. Due 5th week of class (Submit under Topic 3 in Moodle around September 23)
- Second article: Editing an existing article. Due 10th week of class (Submit under Topic 6 around October 11)
- Your edited article needs to be brought up to the quality explained in the rubric below.
Assignment Goal
To create a wikibook (online textbook) about Adult Education theory and practice that will be useful to the public and reusable for future class members. A wiki is a collection of interlinked web pages (articles) that allows users to create and present content collaboratively in a hypertext system using open source software. Shared responsibility for the quality and accuracy of the content and building a reusable repository of knowledge are the goals of wiki.
Objectives
At the conclusion of this assignment the student will be able to:
- Find accurate information related to adult education theory and practice using a variety of sources including libraries (books and journals) and the Internet.
- Evaluate information found related to adult education theory and practice for quality and accuracy.
- Synthesize information related to adult education theory and practice for quality and relevance to building an original document. Don’t just cut and paste, paraphrase information you find and cite correctly.
- Collaborate with one person to create original text related to adult education theory and practice.
- Write original text related to adult education theory and practice for publication in an online wikibook.
- Present original information to the public using Mediawiki, an open source software program.
- Co-create an online textbook, All Things Adult Education WikiBook.
- Develop life long learning habits by transferring these skills to organizing and creating information relevant to the student’s professional and personal lives.
About Wikibooks
Wikibooks are superior to print media because they are living. They are dynamic, collaborative, and constructivist creations that build with each new post. They represent the most current and accurate information available. While a textbook is typically created by one or two individuals over a long time (average textbook is under development for six years), a wikibook is created by many individuals using short chapters that represent the current knowledge base of a particular topic in a short amount of time, days, or weeks. Wiki is a Hawaiian word that means quick, thus, wikibooks can be built quickly and efficiently by a group of people who share a passion for the topic. Some examples of wikis include: Star Trek: [1] (yes, I’m a Trekie, after all isn’t a wiki really about being part of the Borg or the collective consciousness?) and Wikibooks: [2]. The most important website in the world today is Wikipedia [3].
Directions
- To better understand the concept of wikis watch this U-Tube video: [4]
- Go to All Things Adult Education WikiBook [5] and review several articles.
- Pick a topic and write one original article either solo or in a team of two.
- Your second wiki article will be the task of editing another student’s article from a previous class to make it better, more accurate, cleaner, with higher quality information.
- After creating your article, submit your Wiki Reflective Learning Worksheet in Moodle to earn 10 points. You do not need to submit your wiki article, just provide the URL where is it located and I will read it in the wiki.
Reflective Journal
Your reflective journal needs to include the following information:
- Title and URL of the article you created.
- Percent of the page you created in collaboration with others. Estimate the amount of material you created, for example, John=70%, Jill=30%.
- Personal reflections on the process of creating a wiki article working solo and working in a team. Write about how easy or difficult the process was, what were your “ah-ha” moments, your revelations about how new knowledge is created, edited, and presented to the world, and more. Which format did you enjoy more? Working alone or with a partner? How did working in a wiki compare to traditional assignments? Was is motivating, stimulating, encouraging?
Grading of Wiki Articles
Let’s put that education to work! As a graduate student you are expected to develop sophisticated material for the All Things Adult Education WikiBook. You are expected to synthesize a variety of resources to create a new document that is based on the literature and links to the literature but is not cut and paste from the literature (AKA: Plagiarism). Your writing must be based on a lot of reading, organizing, and evaluating of information that is already out there, and then adding something new, unique, and original – interpret what you have learned and present it in a new and interesting way. We have created a rubric to assist with grading that will be handed out in class. Your edited article needs to be brought up to the quality explained in the rubric as well.
Editing in Mediawiki
We will use an open source program called Mediawiki, the same program used by Wikipedia. Mediawiki FAQ [6]
- To protect against vandalism I must add you as an editor. I will do this the first month of the class and email you your user name and password, typically your first OR last name.
- Once you are logged in to All Things Adult Education Wikibook you will see a variety of tabs and hotlinks.
- You can edit any document, any time any where! The purpose of editing is to make the document better (many brains are better than one brain). It can be as simple as correcting a spelling error to developing an entire chapter on a topic.
- You can create text by using a word processor, then cutting and pasting into the wikibook editing page.
- Tip: save your article on your hard drive in case something happens when you are writing and you lose your work.
- All text will be converted to plain text so don’t spend time formatting text.
- Once in the editor, there are only a few editing options and they are well labeled, see Figure 1.
To edit: click on the edit tab at the top of the page. Make your changes, and click Save Page at the bottom of the page. It’s that simple!
To format the text, highlight the text and click on the desired formatting button. The choices are fairly limited (bold, italic, hot linking, heading level 2, etc.)
To add links put brackets [ ] around the full URL, including http://. For example [7]
To link to a page inside the wiki use double brackets around the title of the article. For example How to Write in a Wiki
To make lists or bullet points use the * (asterisk). For example:
- Jane
- Jill
- John
Discussion: every page in the wikibook has a discussion tab at the top. You can communicate with your group using this work space so that everyone can see what you are writing and thinking about. Use the discussion page for brainstorming and communicating with your team as you build your wiki article. I can use this page to help determine your grade as well when working with a partner. The more active you are in discussion, the more likely I am to view your work positively. Wiki writing is a collaborative process, not cut and paste from solo work. Learn to think, collaborate, and write as a team. It’s what the world requires of you.
Wikibook Reflective Learning Worksheet
Directions: Complete and submit this worksheet in Moodle under the Wiki Chapter Assignment links
- Name:
- Date:
- Wiki Article Title:
- Wiki Article URL:
- If working in a team what is your partner’s name:
You must keep a log and reflective diary of your work including the following information:
- Percent of the article you created in collaboration with others. Estimate the amount of material you created. Everyone in your team must add up to 100% (for example, John=40%, Jill=60%)
- Me: ____%
- Partner: ____%
- Total: 100%
Personal reflections on the process of creating a wiki article. Write about how easy or difficult the process was, what were your “ah-ha” moments, your revelations about how new knowledge is created, edited, and presented to the world, and more.
How did working in a wiki compare to traditional assignments? Was is motivating, stimulating, encouraging, more difficult, discouraging?
For Wiki article 2: Which format did you enjoy more? Creating an original article or editing another student’s work? Why? What did you learn about yourself as an editor of someone else’s work?
