Final Reflection

Please describe your overall experience in this course?
I enjoyed all the new knowledge I acquired about the different facets of constructivism.
Please focus on your reactions to "learning about constructivism by doing and experiencing constructivist instructional methods?
Much more difficult than I thought. Much more planning than I thought. I realized how organized and structured a socialized learning environment must be. Communication seemed to be the key to achieving my goals in this class.
Please evaluate the emphasis on collaboration in writing the wikiBook Chapters.
I thought it was good of me to learn from the experience and ideas of others. It made it feel less burdensome that I did not have to do all of the work alone and I thought it was interesting to learn how others found different information and made it all work together.
Please comment on your experience of others (e.g. WikiBook editors, external experts, other Internet surfers) observing and / or critiquing your writing in the WikiBook.
I really don't know. I did not really recieve any outside feedback. However, knowing that others could made me more careful and want to be more crediable in my writing.
Please compare the experience of doing research and authoring a textbook for a class (like this one) versus the traditional way of reading and studying an assigned textbook for a class.
I feel like I gained more knowledge through research, and through the research of my classmates. I was responsible for making sure the soruces were creditable and that I was finding the most current information. It made me search throughly and formulate questions.
As a result of your experience in this class, are you more likely or less likely to assign collaborative wiki writing assignments in your teaching situation? Please explain the reasons you are more or less likely to do so.
Since I teach elementary school, I would not do a wiki text. However, I would have my students work in groups to find their own information and put together a presentation and incorporate more technology to enhance their experience is a definiate.
Please comment about building quizzes and answer keys, and on grading your peers. Did you learn or gain anything valuable from these experiences? Please explain.
I felt it made me think more about how to organize my information and if what I was presenting was relevant to the topic. I also felt it increased my accountability.
What are your suggestions for improving the design of this course? None at this time.