I thought I’d post here to see if anyone had any questions or comments about the peer review process for the projects. From what I’ve been able to tell, it seems like it’s gone/is going okay, though I am also sensing that folks are pretty busy writing/revising their own projects right now too. Which is also good. Anyway, here’s your chance to ask whatever questions you might have about all that.
I’m also curious to find out what you think of the wiki experience. I have sort of mixed feelings, personally. I like using the set-up I have for some fairly technical reasons, and I like the idea that each of you has to wrestle a tiny bit with the code– it is called computers and writing after all, and a little wiki code isn’t so hard to master. I also like that you can search it– and by the way, if you haven’t done so yet, do use the search function on the wiki to try to do some keyword searches for your topic. You might discover some research that your classmates did that will be useful for your work too.
On the other hand, it is a little technical/a little geeky to use, and I personally wish that I knew more about how the mediawiki software worked so I could do more to set it up/get it to work. Anyway, again let me know what you think.
On my rough draft I added my works cited. I’m wondering if this is too much? My two peers that I responded to did not so should I delete this on the final draft?
Oh, you should have a works cited page on your final draft, definitely. Remember: just because it’s on the annotated bibliography doesn’t mean that you have cited it. So yeah, you want to make sure you include the works cited part.
Yeah, I am definitely adding it to my final draft! I was just a little lazy and didn’t add it on to my rough draft.
I think the wiki is cool! The interface is very easy to use. The coolest part is that it looks just like Wikipedia, so the environment feels very official. Definitely do that again next time.
The annotations did help me synthesize the ideas in the articles and enable me to get a sense of the conversations going on in the scholarship. I just feel as if the annotations I’m doing now are not as helpful. This is not because I’m a lazy bum, but because I think as I get further into my project, the act of synthesizing the material isn’t as useful. Right now, it’s more about finding specific information and quotations to the support my argument, and that might mean just drawing from one paragraph in one article. I already have a pretty good sense of the scope of things, you know?
I also liked that we could share our resources via the wiki, and this was especially helpful early on; however, I’m less likely to go look at others’ annotations now, and I feel as if others are less likely to read the annotations I’m posting now, too. Doing more than 20 just feels unnecessary to me.
Regarding peer review: I think it’s hugely valuable, and I’m really glad it was built into the research project. In a grad class, giving students some scaffolding probably seems like overkill, but I don’t think it can hurt either. Saying, for example, that everyone needs to post three questions/concerns that they have about their project to help direct others feedback just seems like a best practice to me — not busy work. Does that make sense?
Anyway, just my two cents. Good luck to everyone on finishing up your projects!
Well, I pretty much agree with everything Carrie said. I like the wiki and think it was really easy to use. Took a few minutes to figure out, but after that, piece of cake. And, i think its really valuable, especially for those of us who have more classes to take.
Peer review, I think is really important. I think you benefit from both sides of it. Honestly, i think in a small class like this, it be even better if we had like two groups of five or six and got even more feedback.
The size of the peer review groups is always tricky, Dave. I try to keep them kind of small with this project because the essays themselves tend to be pretty long, so I don’t want people to have to read that much.
The WIki’s great. It was a little bit of a tedious thing to enter the sources, but not like a big deal. As for peer review, I think it’s going really well. It’s nice to have feedback from other folks in the class who might be able to help me contextualize my paper a bit more in line with what the class is actually focused on.
I’m not a wiki fan and would probably prefer to use a different medium (even something as simple as Googledocs) to share resources.
Peer review is wonderful! My group was super helpful, and I feel like I got a lot out of it.
I’m glad to hear that Andrea. Sometimes I wonder if my comments make sense to others.
I thought the wiki was super easy to use, once I got the hang of it. I just simply copy and pasted everything and it was all good. No complaints from me!
And, yes, I did appreciate the peer review groups. Peer review is always wonderful because the people are able to confirm all of my wonderings— do I need to change this? was this clear? what if I took away that? I like hearing people say, “Why, yes, and how about this….” As a writer, you need that feedback. As a student, you need that moral support. I wouldn’t mind if the groups were bigger, as Dave said. But, in the same regard, I felt I could spend more time really looking at my other group member’s papers since there were only two of them. Maybe groups of four, instead? But not five or anything…
Three is s good number for peer reveiw, that is what I use unless im doing some intense peer reivew and then I do two. I always say 3 is the magic number.
So does School House Rock: http://www.schoolhouserock.tv/Three.html
The peer review was excellent and I want to thank my peers for helping me produce a good product. I have always liked peer review because you work with something for so long you get lost in thought to what it actually says. The Wiki was good. I like trying new things and had fun messing with it. For me it can go either way.
I liked the fact that we had to do the annotated bibs because it got me working towards my project a long time ago. I like the idea of the wiki, but I didn’t do much with it. I mean, I posted my bibs and played around a little, but I didn’t necessarily look for new resources on it. It would be cool though if you had everyone contribute their favorite lesson using technology in the classroom for all to share and then have people expand on them, so that eventually if I clicked on blogs there might be 20 lessons for how i can use blogs in the classroom, or ipod audio casts, etc. That way teachers can walk away with an active supply of lesson plans and alumni can come back and add more or outsiders can stop by and see how to use technology in the classroom, etc. Just an idea