wiki–collaboration and incorporation

I used to consult to wikipedia when I was a graduate student in China, majoring in American Literature. There is a Chinese wikipedia called 百度百科，comparatively focusing on the field of Chinese or Asian scope. I once compared these two pedias, and got my pratical conclusion. Once the information I was looking for concerning Chinese and Asian scope, I may consult to 百度百科; on the contrary, I would rather to wikipedia, which shares much broader and deeper view in the global perspective.

I was quite impressed by the “Siegenthaler controversy,” Dr. Tryon mentioned in his lecture, from which, defines the post-modernism. There’s no marginal, rather, by deconstruction, the binary opposition has been reconstructed into multi-direction. Everyone can share the knowledge, and even produce it. David Parry, in his article, “Wikipedia and the New Curriculum“,  mentions that widipedia can “correct its own errors and relish the fact that others could not do the same” .Shannon Mattern suggests a good method to pigeonhole information by bookmarking, Delicious: Renovating the Mnemonic Architectures of Bookmarking.

In essence, wiki is based on the idea of collaboration and incorporation, aiming at sharing and producing the knowledge.  Pendagogically, wiki can be applied to the team project. Students can be required to construct  cultural-related topic, or litary-related assignment. For EFL students, they can be under the assgnment of translation, modifying and remodifying the translation. By doing so, they can realize how the application of translation theories into the pratical works. Study needs the process of interactions among students and of building the confidence by collaboration and incorporaion. As the teacher, he/she has to be very careful about the process of the project and measurement of the dedication from every student.

This is my wiki project:

The Role of Technology in the Classroom Teaching

twitter? twitter!

Frankly speaking, I have been confronted these universal technology tools these days. I registerd my FB as long as I came to America. And I have been stumbling in trying twitter and wordpress blog these days. Of course, I am not an isolated person from an isolated country, just because we usually use Chinese FB, Chinese twitter and Chinese blogs, as the FB has been blocked in China.

It is hot to use Chinese twitter in China, and several shocking events has been revealed by tweeting! Therefore, we are gonna say the world is much opener and you could not hide any secret. One shocking news is about a twenty-two-year-old girl who showed off in her twitter with her newly-bought sports car, with her luxurious LV handbags, even with her newly-bought house, which obviously she could not offord by her own.  Then some her followers traced her identity in real life, and revealed the reason why she has been unbelievable rich, that is, her father is one of the board members  in the Red Cross Charity. The news stunned people and Red Cross Charity has become notorious for  half a year. Every Chinese citizen, including me, began to be skeptical about dealings about the money we domated. In other words, without twitter, the shocking new could have not been revealed.

However, I am holding an ambivalent attitudes towards twitter. On one hand, I would like to share my interests, what I am doing and my emotions to my friends and my family, especially when I am remote from my friends and my family in China. while on the other hand, I am very much concerned about the dimemsion of my personal life and my privacy. Furthermore, I find the more I spend on twitter, the less my personal reading time is. Sometimes, my addiction to the internet social network, leads me to situation– sitting alone in my room, giggling in front of the laptop! 

When it goes to the educational application in twitter, I strongly believe that it can be of help if the teacher can motivate students and set up the rule specifically. Besides the application in twitter which Dr. Tryon has listed in his lecture, I guess the translation exercises could be effective in the twitter. Teacher can offer some lines in the poem, making students retweet their translations with their understandings. The 140- character limitation also makes them make their translations to the point with concision. Further, the teacher could list some good translations with the tool of twitpoll, ask for students’ opinion about  the best translation version.

 

Blogging Adventures in Wonderland

Henry David Thoreau once commented “Men have become the tools of their tools.”, which is a negative view towards the impact technology can have on human beings. Technology does makes our life faster and better, however, it may trap men more reliable and dependent.

Jamie Wilson wrote her blog “To Blog or Not to Blog“,  introducing her teaching experience in the application of blogging in teaching writing. I do have some similar concerns about blogging teaching. Firstly, I have to admit blogging is an endeavor to bridge among students and teachers. And I have applied it to my English teaching in China. I encouraged every student to comment on their classmates’ writing. It was extremely effective for those who were too shy to speak English in the public, as they may be blocked by the vocabularies and expressions in the process of  second language learning, while commenting in the blog may somehow release their anxiety and shyness. Secondly, every student likes the interaction among one another. One has commented on his classmate’s writing, while another one proposes a different idea, through which they are all sparkled.

The biggest concern I have had until now, is ” how to avoid some students lurking around”?  It is common that there are always someone like to lurk around in the blog. They do read others’ blog, but seldom do they actively participate in the blogging.  Or, they just comment little on their classmates’ blogs, which is very much obviously they gain little from the interaction in blogging. 

Anyway, I do hope this course could take me to the blogging adventures in wonderland. By far, it does, by reading Dr. Tryon’s lectures and stimulated by my classmates’ blogs.