User talk:Marinieuw

This is my Wikibooks discussion page which will be used for educational purposes for a University module. Please feel free to engage with the content I create. Marinieuw (discuss • contribs) 14:14, 16 February 2016 (UTC)

Wiki Exercise 1 - Educational
Halftime performances on Superbowl Sunday are a spectacle. As someone who has never been very interested in American Football, the halftime shows are usually the only part of the event I care about. This year's Superbowl Sunday was graced by the presence of acclaimed performer Beyoncé. The day before, her new video Formation was released to the public, and during her halftime performance was her first time performing this. It’s in Beyoncé’s style to release new albums and music without much preamble, and once again it was all a lot of people could talk about on various social media platforms. In one weekend the Beyoncé fans received a new song, a new music video, a performance and the announcement that there would be a World Tour this summer. As someone who has only recently become a fan of Beyoncé, this was a wonderful thing to hear. The music video for Formation was amazing, and the Superbowl halftime performance equally so. The song was a met with a mashup of Bruno Mars’ Uptown Funk, and together they made the crowd go wild. In two days, Beyoncé managed to make the entire world aware of her new song and that's important for a couple of reasons.

The performance caused discussion due to the way Beyoncé and her backup dancers were dressed in the attire of the Black Panthers; it was the 50th anniversary of the formation of the group. It caused controversy on the Internet due to the militant, aggressive connotation the Black Panthers have. I don’t believe that is the connotation that Beyoncé intended; instead, she wanted to send a strong, political message to the world about her stance in the state of current racial tensions in the United States. The largest way that the message was spread was via social and digital media. It shows how media can be spread at incredibly fast and this is important considering the message that Beyoncé is trying to get across. The video was shared millions of times on Facebook and Twitter, and it was discussed on many social media platforms. It opened a dialogue between people who agreed and disagreed with her, showing the interesting aspects that can come out of videos on social media.

REPLY: I saw this as well and remember thinking that it was very unlike Beyoncé to take such a political stance, but I admire her for it. It never crossed my mind to assume Beyoncé would be condoning the actions of an militant group, but showing her support to the African American community during a time when they are being aggressively oppressed. The song Formation itself seems to be Beyoncé just celebrating the African American culture in the States and giving the people reason to be proud of their community, heritage and achievements. --Riinamaria (discuss • contribs) 00:21, 19 February 2016 (UTC)

Wiki Exercise 1: Formative Feedback
Your post is thoughtful and well written although it would have benefited from more use of wiki markup, particularly with links to relevant materials (e.g. the video of Béyonce's performance, a wiki link to the Black Panthers), but also remembering to sign your exercises with 4 tildes. Your responses engage with colleagues' posts and show some reflection, which along with engagement with academic ideas from the module, will be more important in future exercises.

A post of this standard roughly corresponds to the following grade descriptor: Good. Among other things, good entries will make a clear point in a clear way. They will relate concepts to original examples in a straightforward fashion. They will make effective use of the possibilities of the form (including links, as well as perhaps copyright-free videos and images, linked to from Wiki Commons). They may also demonstrate a broader understanding of the module's themes and concerns, and are likely to show evidence of reading and thinking about the subject material. The wiki markup formatting will be very clear. Sprowberry (discuss • contribs) 10:00, 29 February 2016 (UTC)

Wiki Exercise 2 - Educational
My online visibility is quite high- when it comes to social media, I have accounts on quite a few platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram and Snapchat. Therefore there is probably quite a lot of information about me online. My Twitter and Tumblr accounts aren’t protected in any ways, though I am quite careful about what information I put on them. I use my nickname as my name on both, and don’t tend to share much personal information. Both of these have over 700 followers, though, so more people are exposed to the content I create as opposed to my Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat. I cannot control who follows me on Twitter and Tumblr, though I could choose to do so if I set my settings to private. However, I use my Twitter and Tumblr for fashion and news so I don’t really mind that anyone can see it.

I am very much aware of this when I post things online, but it changes with different types of media platforms. For example, I only accept friends on Facebook that I actually know. I’m more careful with the things I post about my every day life on that platform, because my family and friends are able to see it and comment on it. Because of this, I tend to post a lot less on Facebook than Twitter. The only thing I post on Facebook these days are noteworthy events in my life or the occasional picture from a night out. The same goes for my Instagram; I don’t have very many follows on them, but the followers I do have tend to be people I know, so I post personal pictures of things I’m doing on there.

All in all, there is quite a lot of information of me online, but due to the privacy settings I enforce on my more personal forms of social media, there is not much information about me personally. I’ve chosen not to set certain social media platforms to private because I trust myself in using them responsibly, and not in a way that might be harmful to others or to myself in the future.

COMMENTS

I felt your post was very straightforward in describing your online visibility. I also found the information on what you post on certain platforms to be of particular interest. It seems fairly commonplace to utilise different platforms of social media for different purposes, particularly centering on alternatives to Facebook. Although, I'm curious, what would you consider your primary platform for social media? I always assume Facebook is the most common social media platform, but I know that must not be the case for all people. I also considered your thoughts on privacy settings as interesting, particularly in regards to trusting your own agency as a creator of content. I personally feel that privacy settings are sometimes discussed too heavily as one of the only forms of maintaining your privacy, when selecting what you post would work just as effectively. But I suppose this is overlooked as obvious. Just an observation. But, anyway, I thought this was overall pretty interesting!

CaDowns (discuss • contribs) 21:54, 25 February 2016 (UTC)

Wiki Exercise 3 - Educational
When it comes to how distracting the Internet can be, I am a prime example of somebody who is constantly distracted by different forms of media. A bad concentration in combination with a smartphone is never a good thing- things get done, but they could have been done a lot quicker if I didn't check twitter every five minutes. I've never been one to concentrate for long periods of time, and since the upcoming technology and the use of smartphones it is becoming even more difficult to do this. The biggest issue that I'm faced is the concept of constantly checking my phone. So when I am doing a certain task, I won't even necessarily be on my phone but I will be checking it for messages and texts.

The constant need to be online seems to be the cause of this; because a person is always online, this also results in the person receiving a lot of information throughout the day. Considering 84% of teenagers and young adults own media devices, almost everybody is contactable online and most likely uses social media platforms. However, how to help this distraction is a difficult problem to solve. There are several apps that help you stay off social media when you have a task to do, and though that may work for some, it is quite easy to turn most of these apps off. Getting rid of certain social media would be another, more extreme option, and I have seen several people do this for the sole reason that they need to concentrate more on their schoolwork.

In the end, it comes down to how much self-control a person has. If you are able to tear yourself away from your social media platforms for long enough to do your work, and if you're able to withstand the temptation of the endless information Facebook and Twitter provide, there is more chance that you will get your work and tasks finished. For me, it helps to think of the bigger picture; having a good grade for my essay is more important to me than seeing what somebody wrote about the Oscars on Facebook. Prioritizing your everyday tasks over that of social media and realizing that social media is counterproductive is one of the few ways to be able to be a productive individual. Marinieuw (discuss • contribs) 15:07, 1 March 2016 (UTC)

Comments
Hi, I feel like I can relate quite a lot with what you are talking about, for instance your constant need of checking you phone and apps even though you are not actually 'on the phone' with someone. Being able to detach ourselves from this abundance of information can take a lot of will power and I have to rely, as you have also said, on apps that block me from accessing some websites from time to time. Similarly, I realize how this amount of information can influence my mood from day to day; for example I found myself checking twitter or the news on my phone in the morning as soon as I wake up and know that seeing something quite upsetting is not the best way to start the day, but I don't want to actively stop. Maybe, in a sort of twisted Oedipian-like manner, this is the price of knowledge and the collectivisation that the internet offers to us. Nonetheless, I think that, as you said, it's fundamental to learn to prioritise and sometimes the anxiety of being behind with my work beats the 'anxiety' of wanting to know what's happening around me and in the world in general and thus is, at least for me and for now, a powerful motivator. Everynameistaken15 (discuss • contribs) 10:27, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

I so relate to this as well,, I remember I saw a post on Facebook years ago about how we all wake up and check (insert social media of choice here) like it's the newspaper. This is basically the way we, as young people, now, tend to get all of our news. I've found out about so many news stories, and deaths of famous people, through Facebook. However the first thing I do is check it with the online news papers, such as BBC. I feel like what you were talking about, is so relevant. I'd like to think that before the internet people were finding other ways to procrastinate getting things done, but the truth is it is must harder with so much available online to get distracted. It's not just the constant phone notifications but even as I'm writing this my laptop is showing notifications from Facebook on the side of the screen. I suppose it is the responsibility of the user to restrict the notifications, but I think there should be an easier way to do that. Perhaps Facebook or Twitter should take more responsibility or options for the amount of notifications and ways that it reaches us without us actually being on the apps or websites. PurpleHan (discuss • contribs) 11:38, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

Yes, I definitely believe that social media has made it even more difficult for us to concentrate on the tasks that we are needing to do. On one hand, it is our own responsibility to self-reflect and realise what our priorities are, but on the other hand social media has made it increasingly more difficult for us to do so. I agree that this is indeed the negative effect that has come with all the positive things that the internet has given us. Hopefully in the future it will become easier and easier as people become more and more used to being surrounded by this technology, and the anxiety that is paired with being 'always on' will disappear a bit.

Wiki Exercise 4 - Educational
After several weeks of having the slightly nagging pressure that we should be checking our group’s discussion page every free moment in the day, Wikibooks can be concluded as quite the experience. Group work was one of the more challenging things during this project. A collective mind and a collective work become difficult when each person is attempting to obtain a high grade. The problems resulting from this ended in discussions and even the occasional argument, which was far from a pleasant experience for any of the thirty or so members that were working on a section. Certain topics were claimed and then taken over by others, some people were more impatient than others and the notion of ‘working together’ was hard to find. Instead, it felt like a competition between peers to see who could claim the most topics and a gamification when it came to ‘contribs’ by changing miniscule aspects to a piece of text a couple of times.

What has been taken away from the project is that we have all learnt to edit in Wikibooks or Wikipedia. However, this poses a problem, as Wikipedia is not exactly the preferred mode of research or writing within the academic spheres. Furthermore, the basic coding that was also taught to us is not particularly a skillset many of us will pursue either. One could argue that we learnt about the subjects discussed in the lectures, but as much research, if not more, would have gone into these subjects if they had to be written in the form of essays. Occasionally, Wikibooks could feel like a long, drawn-out essay with the interference of group work that did not go particularly smoothly. The assignments on the student’s individual page were a more pleasant experience, and still provided the chance for discussion through the comments.

On the other hand, the topics themselves were a delight to read and study. Digital media has such an incredibly diverse range of subjects that when it came to the actual research that it was much less of a problem. Though there was the occasional disagreement with various theorists, the subjects kept the majority motivated to write their contributions to the Wikibook. The project encouraged the individual to go beyond and research subjects to come up with new and innovative topics; even the group work encouraged this, for sometimes so many topics were claimed that people had to set out to find new topics to discuss. It was information overload in a more positive sense, as it was captivating and enriching to many students’ experiences and knowledge.

To conclude, Wikibooks was a learning process that had its faults. The group work had most students experience the negative aspects of a knowledge community, and there would definitely be ways to improve this aspect. Furthermore, the added skills of Wikibooks do not contribute a great amount to the average student. However, the individual assignments were a great way for both discussion and sharing ideas about our views regarding the subjects, and the subjects of the module were overall extremely interesting. Marinieuw (discuss • contribs) 22:57, 5 April 2016 (UTC)

Comments
I agree with your statement that the topics brought up in our wikibook were truly interesting topics. Digital media does in fact hold information and research I, would like to learn about. However you mention that the wikibooks brought the individual to go beyond and above to find other research that hasn't been mentioned or snatched up by a fellow student, which I totally see and can agree with, however I feel that this made approaching this project intimidating and for some people difficult to approach as they might not be bold enough to take their stand etc. Adding the part when the individual work was more interesting to get involved in is a thing i truly believe as well. This poses a question, maybe the topics of the wikibooks would have been made better and more interesting if made individually and then after engage with each other texts through comments and discussion. What do you think? QueenElsaIngrid (discuss • contribs) 11:00, 6 April 2016 (UTC)

I agree with you, somehow this project was very intimidating, especially because some people had already delineated the major topics to cover even before all the other students could even think about it. Thus, most of the people just put up with the existing structure because they could not think of any other topic to add to it. I think that the whole project should have been structured in a completely different way, because with this method only a bold minority has been able to fully engage with the project. I do believe that in order to show real knowledge an essay would have been better like Marinieuw said, but even changing the grading system would have helped, as communicating with other peers counted more on the total grade than the actual knowledge that we have created. In addition, with the other group projects that I have done before grades weren't given to individuals but to the groups, while with this we are all marked individually. Why marking the individual if it is a group project? In this way it is almost sure that people will think about themselves first instead of thinking about the common aim. GConcilio94 (discuss • contribs) 11:57, 7 April 2016 (UTC)

I definitely agree the group work aspect wasn't smooth, and you summed up my thoughts on it when you said it became more about peer competition than collective knowledge and teamwork. The whole thing was judged on individuals work like says, so why bother with making groups of thirty? If it were judged on the collaborative aspect instead of individual contributions then I could understand. You're right to say the topics were really interesting and the lectures were informative and engaging, it was just the assignments which made the module difficult to like. Wikis are good alternative forms of assessment, but as a collaborative project I think they fail as a whole - check out Scardamalia's principles of online collaboration and knowledge building, they helped me understand why individuals behave they way they did in online group projects. Really well articulated thoughts on the project here, and a good insight into what went wrong and what went right. It was a pleasure working with you! Lyndzcmedia (discuss • contribs) 23:11, 7 April 2016 (UTC)

I completely agree with you. This assignment had many, many faults. It would have been easier if the groups were only formed from the seminar groups and just left it there, however when you add 20 plus other members then communication becomes a bit trickier. The problem with wikibooks that i would like tot point out, is the fact that unlike facebook or any type of social media, it doesn't give you a notification when someones writes. So one day there was nothing on the page, i would log on two days later just to find out that topics were made and the person who put everything on the page had already chosen a variation of topics to do. Some groups worked better than others, the problem was (as you also pointed out) that in our group some people just wanted to do it all for the grade, which left other members with very little to do. I believe this project could've been handled better. Valesagasti (discuss • contribs) 08:36, 8 April 2016 (UTC)

Marker’s Feedback on Wikibook Project Work
It is clear from your contributions to various talk and discussion pages that you have engaged with peers and understood the importance of collaboration for this assignment. Despite this, there are elements where it would be useful to see further evidence of engagement. For example, you only use a limited range of wiki markup and do not fully exploit the affordances of the platform. There are times where you did not meet the minimum expectations for responses to others' portfolio exercises. There are some areas of academic improvement too: in particular, make sure your references are informative rather than the bear minimum, making it difficult to know what's coming when clicking. Your work would also benefit from greater engagement with academic sources that would help to demonstrate a greater understanding of module themes.

Content (weighted 20%)

 * Your contribution to the book page gives a good brief overview of the subject under discussion in your chosen themed chapter. There is a good range of concepts associated with your subject, and the effort to deliver critical definitions, drawing from relevant literature and scholarship, and your own critical voice in the building of a robust argument is very much in evidence. The primary and secondary sources you found about the chapter’s themes cover a good range and depth of subject matter.

Understanding (weighted 30%)

 * Reading and research:
 * evidence of critical engagement with set materials, although some ideas and procedures more securely grasped than others
 * evidence of independent reading of somewhat circumscribed range of appropriate academic and peer-reviewed material
 * Argument and analysis:
 * well-articulated and well-supported argument featuring variable depth of understanding
 * satisfactory level of evidence of critical thinking (through taking a position in relation to key ideas from the module, and supporting this position in discussion);
 * satisfactory level of evidence of relational thinking (through making connections between key ideas from the module and wider literature, and supporting these connections in discussion);
 * evidence of variable independent critical ability

Engagement (weighted 50%)

 * Evidence from contributions to both editing and discussion of content suggests minimally sufficient standard of engagement (i.e. volume and breadth of activity as evidenced through contribs)
 * Acceptable engagement with and learning from other Wikipedians about the task of writing/editing content for a Wikibook
 * Limited reflexivity and creativity, and a somewhat insecure management of discussion pages

Overall Mark % available on Succeed

FMSU9A4marker (discuss • contribs) 14:45, 3 May 2016 (UTC)