I started a wiki with my eighth grade students to share ideas about a writing assignment they are going to be doing. My idea was that they could use this to discuss with each other what they might want to write about and then they can each have their own pages to begin writing their stories, getting input and editing from their classmates throughout.
Then, something very funny happened today. During class the students all logged on to the wiki and began chatting with each other through the discussion forums. It was at this point that I noticed a couple of things. First, the classroom was so quiet, except for a random chuckle or chair moving, you could hear a pin drop, And second, the students were totally and completely absorbed in each others' ideas for writing.
I know from experience that if I had asked these students to bring in ideas for writing and discuss them in their groups or as a whole class, there would have been no where near as much "discussion" as there was online this afternoon. For some reason, these students know how to discuss way better through the computer. It reminded me of a story I heard on the Moth Radio Hour about a father trying to talk to his 12 year old son. He realized the only way to really ever be able to get anything out of his son was through instant messaging. The story is hilarious, and just reconfirms my ideas about these kids being much better at sharing ideas and feelings through the computer. The story is in Moth Radio 3 and it is the second story told.
3 comments:
Your wiki experience is inspiring! I think kids love that idea of instant gratification when it comes to putting their ideas "out there"--but like the security of not having to say it out loud. Once they had "X" amount of time on the wiki, did you bring the conversation back to the class as a whole without the computer? Just curious as to how it transitioned into the next step. Thanks for sharing your experience!
Actually, we haven't even made it to the next step yet. They're still sharing with each other through the Wiki. But, I did get comments at the end of class (a particularly difficult class actually) that they were proud of themselves for doing so well, that they got so much input their classmates, and that they are actually taking this assignment seriously.
I first became aware of this kind of phenomenon when my son spent all night in a MDA rock-a-thon and commented how funny it was to be sitting next to his best friend and texting instead of talking. One thins I am interested in is how our digital native children relate differently to these digital media. We (or at least I) tend to assess technologies in comparison with the traditional media that I know (writing, face-to-face discussion, etc.). What intrigues me is whether something like your students wiki discussion isn't like either discussion or writing, but is some whole other thing.
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