Notes from Millie D

The wiki has been put to bed, as much as you put a wiki to bed.  David and I put the finishing touches on the wiki this week.  Collaborating with David has been nice because we went in with a game plan and executed.  Before we even started on the wiki we exchanged emails where we set the tone of what would be on the wiki.  I put together the framework but before we started putting content we made sure we were on the same page (which we were).  Once the framework was in place we draw straws on what work we’re going to post.  Editing occurred after the first layer was put on and fortunately we were only doing minor edits or add-ons.  At some point I figured leaving comments on the wiki wasn’t going to be the best way to collaborate as I could use the RSS feed to see the updates.  I felt this wiki was about working smarter not harder.  A message I try to impart on my students.

Talking over my experiences with another student in the class I discovered that taking the time to set things up really made the whole process much easier.  If either David or I had just jumped in and created the first layer there would have been a lot of issues down the road, especially if we didn’t agree on the content.  Is this ideal?  For the most part I would agree.  We teach our students to plan and draft before putting together a first draft.  Isn’t that the expectation we should have on their teachers?