Comments on: Learned selfishness http://sustainablydigital.edublogs.org/2008/03/03/learned-selfishness/ Thoughts on teaching, technology, and maintaining sanity Mon, 05 Oct 2009 10:49:34 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 hourly 1 By: Clay Burell http://sustainablydigital.edublogs.org/2008/03/03/learned-selfishness/comment-page-1/#comment-34 Clay Burell Sun, 16 Mar 2008 18:17:08 +0000 http://sustainablydigital.edublogs.org/2008/03/03/learned-selfishness/#comment-34 That's a really troublesome and piercing addition to the catalogue of all things "schooly." I hadn't thought about this before - but also, hadn't really seen it, since all of my wiki work has been individual, but with students assessed for quality of peer review of others' work on the wiki. I think I set my wikis up this way because frankly, I'm intimidated by how to teach group collaborative writing a la Wikipedia. I know a guy who is a regular contributor to Wikipedia. I've asked him to give me an interview for a podcast, but haven't made the time to get around to it. This post pushes me. (Unfortunately, I have a stack of papers to assess first.) That’s a really troublesome and piercing addition to the catalogue of all things “schooly.” I hadn’t thought about this before – but also, hadn’t really seen it, since all of my wiki work has been individual, but with students assessed for quality of peer review of others’ work on the wiki.

I think I set my wikis up this way because frankly, I’m intimidated by how to teach group collaborative writing a la Wikipedia.

I know a guy who is a regular contributor to Wikipedia. I’ve asked him to give me an interview for a podcast, but haven’t made the time to get around to it. This post pushes me. (Unfortunately, I have a stack of papers to assess first.)

]]> By: bcds http://sustainablydigital.edublogs.org/2008/03/03/learned-selfishness/comment-page-1/#comment-33 bcds Sun, 16 Mar 2008 17:42:03 +0000 http://sustainablydigital.edublogs.org/2008/03/03/learned-selfishness/#comment-33 I did my first wiki with a 7th grade class this fall. I thought they would enjoy collaborating with others in my other section of 7th grade. Boy, was I wrong. I was really surprised by the level of not only independent work, but outright sabotage. The "bright" kids would just go through and delete the work of others in the group because they didn't like it or didn't think it was good enough. The shock for the kids was the rubric I used for grading... did not grade the final project- I graded on collaborative work skills. Although now, looking back, I just plain have to teach these skills, not grade them- work on them- teach new ways to do things, to work together. I learned a lot about how little collaboration is taught or used with my middle school kids. So, next time around, it will be different for my 7th graders. I get it now. And when I do similar projects with my 8th graders, hopefully it will come easier the second time around. I did my first wiki with a 7th grade class this fall. I thought they would enjoy collaborating with others in my other section of 7th grade. Boy, was I wrong. I was really surprised by the level of not only independent work, but outright sabotage. The “bright” kids would just go through and delete the work of others in the group because they didn’t like it or didn’t think it was good enough. The shock for the kids was the rubric I used for grading… did not grade the final project- I graded on collaborative work skills. Although now, looking back, I just plain have to teach these skills, not grade them- work on them- teach new ways to do things, to work together. I learned a lot about how little collaboration is taught or used with my middle school kids. So, next time around, it will be different for my 7th graders. I get it now. And when I do similar projects with my 8th graders, hopefully it will come easier the second time around.

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