Okay, so I’m planning on doing something with Wikis for my “Geek of the Day” presentation and (although Moxley, Meehan, Loudermilk, and Hern’s examples definitely showed me what was out there) I found sites like writingwiki.org and teachingwiki.org to be rather clunky and confusing. It appears that Moxley designed these two sites for USF students (fine and dandy), but how do I create something similar for my students that looks a hell of a lot better and is easier to navigate? Wikispaces.com appears to be the most straightforward of the bunch, and (at least from a design standpoint) the user has a lot of options to make the various pages look somewhat interesting. Even so, it seems like most of the Wiki sites I’ve been exposed to follow the same stringent design format…is there a reason for this? Or am I just not familiar enough with the possibilities of these web-based programs/editors?
Another brief aside on collaboration…last semester in Dr. Grutsch McKinney’s ENG 601 class we talked briefly about collaborative dissertations and whether or not that notion of singular authorship (i.e. of doing one’s own work) was becoming somewhat outdated considering what we know about knowledge being socially constructed and the emphasis we place as instructors on collaboration. Since many of you weren’t in that class with me (aside from Carolyn), I was just wondering your take on the subject? Should institutions of higher education allow the option for culminating projects (such as theses and dissertations) to be co-written? Personally, my initial reaction is yes, particularly if in our classrooms we exalt the benefits of writing with others (and thus might appear hypocritical if don’t partake in such activities ourselves), but I’m also reluctant considering the prevailing views of the academy where individual scholarship is seen with less suspicion than collaborative work (the subtext being you were either too lazy or too incompetent to complete the article, thesis, dissertation, or whatever on your own). Thoughts?
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3 comments:
Should they or will they are two different questions. I think collaborative projects should be respected since they demonstrate a candidate's ability to produce scholarship as part of a team, something supposedly valued today. Certainly I think the candidate should be able to demonstrate his/her contributions. Will these projects ever be respected the same way as individual scholarship? Maybe not in the short term, and that's what we might have to consider for our own purposes.
Personally, I have never really liked collaborative writing which possible stems from being partnered with incompetent, non motivated individuals. I really do think that on the graduate level situations like these would not be as prevelant. Have some of you been involved in collaborative writing before this class? What was your evaluation of your experiences?
I definetely think collaborative dissertations is a good idea; although, would probably meet mixed feelings. Depending on the project, the institution, I think it could go either way. I think, though, if you propose a collaborative project, you would have to establish why it should be collaborative for those who were skeptical.
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