"Better late than never" - First Impressions (do they last longer?!)

"Better late than ever" - This is the motto one of my first year undergrads chose for his wiki page in the project started this semester. He meant it as an ironical reminder that,

yes, he managed to catch up with the missed/skipped classes,
yes, his assignments were late but

we should all be happy and stop moaning because

yes, he managed to do it! Wow! Cool!

It is too early for conclusions regarding the project. There are yet questions to be answered - questionnaires, interviews and my own reflections as noted in a modest "campaign diary"...

Still, my student's motto sadly illustrates young Romanians' plight on the road to a belated modernity - a mixture of their inability to cope with academic requirements on their own (most likely residual effects of an overprotective/ authoritarian educational environment) and the desire to save face derived, I would assume, from either a long-lasting tradition of "I-have-to-preserve-my-dignity-no-matter-what" or a sudden awakening to the real world that, good God, hasn't waited for us, hurry up, time's running out, please wait for usssssss!!!

Bitter joke apart, I believe that the most important gain of this project is that 

yes, I managed to put up wikis and organise them for my classes,
yes, the project failed along most dimensions but

we should be happy and stop moaning because

yes, I sort of found a way back to my real world students,
I can look them in the eyes with a renewed sense of joy - 

Here we are, admitting failure, learning from our mistakes
that a step-by-step approach is better than working in fits and starts
that "the New" should not be a scary movie with dark characters,
and,
hopefully, this will add to the other foundation blocks we all need in
our personal and professional development.

(yes, you've heard well, I said "we" - there's no doubt that one of the greatest satisfactions
is to learn together with/ from one's students)

Wikis in University Teaching and Learning

I believe that anyone who watches Richard Buckland's presentation will understand the definite advantages of using wikis in tertiary education. As already known, this pedagogical approach relies heavily on collaborative principles and a philosophy of trust and respect between teachers and students who, simply, become LEARNERS who are not afraid of sharing and building knowledge together.Enjoy!

First Attempt at Wiki Project

The following is a brief presentation of our first attempt at implementing a wiki project for students in social sciences (Faculty of Sociology and Social Work) at Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj.
Cristina Felea & Liana Stanca.

As numerous research projects (see my provisional Diigo list of references) have demonstrated, Wiki technology and wiki tools are efficient instruments for implementing collaborative learning in teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and particularly English for Specific/Academic Purposes (ESP/EAP).
In the second stage of Web evolution, known as semantic Web (see Tim Berners-Lee), collaboration is the key word of all activities performed on and offline.Constructivist approaches to learning and Web 2.0 tools have developed together into new paradigms for sustainable models of lifelong learning. According to Lev Vygotsky, learners develop socially when they collaborate with their more capable peers. In this context, individuals learn in accordance with their own aspirations to reach the social level they initially planned to attain. Our article will describe the introduction of the wiki tool in the process of teaching ESP/EAP for EFL undergraduate students in social sciences. Although also used for course and syllabus management, our wiki project aims at enhancing students’ and teacher’s involvement in collaborative online content creation with special emphasis on the participatory dimension of both parties.
The wiki learning platform has been designed to support a flexible approach of the EAP course. Materials are presented in a variety of formats (audio, video, multimedia) embedded in a gradual guided approach (accompanied by reference links to EAP tutorials from other universities and internet-based activities tutorials adapted to students’ needs) to learning in a Web 2.0 environment. Our aim is to set up a statistical study of the effects of introducing Web 2.0 tools in the learning process of students who only have computer and internet basic skills. This will be a first step in investigating the impact of Web 2.0 technologies on students’ acquisitions. Our research will move on to a series of experiments designed to create a device to assist teachers in creating a collaborative environment based on learners’ compatibility and affinities drawing on Vygotsky’s social constructivist approach and using methods from the game theory.