User talk:NicholeWhite13

This is the wikibooks user discussion page for NicholeWhite13, I will be exploring wikibooks and registering my discussions on this page as part of an academic assignment. NicholeWhite13 (discuss • contribs) 14:14, 16 February 2016 (UTC)

Wiki Exercise #1 - Educational Assignment
As a way to unwind and relax, I like many others spend my downtime scrolling through various social media platforms. I find myself floating through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat and occasionally commenting on a friends photo, or sharing a viral video. Let's be honest, none of the above really require that much effort and rarely spark thought-provoking discussions and debates. It's out of habit that we constantly plunge ourselves into our online personas and it's easy for us to become fully absorbed in non-important guff. Following endless late nights of mind-numbing scrolling, I was refreshed (no pun intended) to find a link to the TED talks website.

TED Talks is a non-profit organisation that holds large conference talks on a huge variety of subjects. The site has thousands of videos with feature many motivational speakers and specialists in their fields presenting to audiences. The videos feature everything from motivational talks to informative arguments and I find it is a great platform that highlights both serious, and not-so serious, worldly matters. I am hugely intrigued by the never ending amounts of topics available to watch talks about and I ensure that watching a talk is embedded into my weekly routine.

I think the main reason as to why I do this, is because TED talks simply requires you to do two things that are often forgotten about in a culture where we act as magnets to social media platforms: Listen and Think.

Have a look at the Ted Talks homepagewhere you can find an outstanding number of topics and discussions, I promise there is something for everyone!

I have also included a personal favourite video of Spoken Word Poet Sarah Kay, titled "If I Should Have A Daughter", give it a watch!

NicholeWhite13 (discuss • contribs) 15:13, 16 February 2016 (UTC)

Marker’s Comment

 * A fairly well-written entry. It would have been useful to try to feed this into the themes and concerns of the module more explicitly though e.g. cultural determinism and the desire or need to be semi-permanently connected - this also relates to always-on, aspects of new theories on celebrity youtubers and so on. Lots there to feed into the project work if you do the research.


 * A post of this standard roughly corresponds to the following grade descriptor, and at the low end of the grade band because of the absence of comments:
 * Poor. Among other things, poor entries may just offer links without real comment or apparent point. They may offer nothing more than poor-quality synopsis or description of material of dubious relevance. They may have serious clarity problems (including dead links, random graphics) which affect comprehension (or even worse, admin warnings or take-down notices for copyright infringement). They might be off-topic, private trivia, or of unclear relevance. The wiki markup formatting will be of a poor standard.

RE: Comments on others’ work

 * These are absent. You have not adhered to the brief. Remember that your comments on other people's work is weighted as heavily as your own post when it comes to grades. Not completing this part of the exercise means that, effectively you are halving your mark. GregXenon01 (discuss • contribs) 17:02, 1 March 2016 (UTC)

Hi Greg, when i first submitted this, before they were all deleted i had contributed 1 or 2 comments on my classmates work. After submitting this one I forgot to do the same. I understand that this is my own doing, but due to being off ill/having internet problems I haven't been active on the page at all. Is there any way if I comment now and complete the other two exercises will they still be considered for grading or is there absolutely no way i try to gain any marks from these as they are now overdue? Sorry for the inconvenience, any advice would be a great help. NicholeWhite13 (discuss • contribs) 15:08, 11 March 2016 (UTC)


 * Nicole, you might find some success in getting the text either reinstated or a copy of what you posted emailed directly to you if you contact the admins. I know that one or two students had some success with this. I'm not sure what exact procedure they followed, but you can certainly ask for advice - if I'm not mistaken, got some of this information (if I'm amking an incorrect assumption, I apologise Christine!).GregXenon01 (discuss • contribs) 16:33, 11 March 2016 (UTC)


 * Hi everyone, I am not sure, if I got the problem correctly, but I'll try to help. Normally you can retrieve deleted pages (when there was no issue about copyright or offensiveness) following the instruction on this page: WP:REFUND Therefore you need to know the exact name of the deleted page. Besides that you can always ask the admin, that deleted your page, mostly they are helpful with that. But I guess you posted your comments on other people's pages - therefore you would need to restore their pages, if they were deleted, too. SchrumpflinH (discuss • contribs) 17:53, 13 March 2016 (UTC)

Hi, I have found this article very interesting. I fully agree with "mind-numbing" experience you have mentioned. In the past, I have noticed how much time is consumed by social media. It almost creates an illusion that you are being productive since you are taking in information, which is normally associated with learning. Sadly most of the time it is irrelevant information that only tires the brain. I have scrolled through the TED website and realised how smart the idea behind it is. For someone who is always in a rush and never has time this website would be really useful. All the talks seem to have a restriction to stay under 20 minutes which seems to be quiet a good length for a video. The topics themselves seem to be quiet educational. I really enjoyed the layout and the simplicity of the website. Another great thing about it that cought my attention was the discussion section bellow every video. It would be fair to say that a lot of the talks create a big space for debate and the discussion section makes it easier for general public to get engaged and share their opinions. Toriettaaw (discuss • contribs) 21:45, 16 February 2016 (UTC)

Discussion on Wiki Exercise #1 - Educational Assignment
Feel free to add comments and thoughts on my wiki exercise #1 here. NicholeWhite13 (discuss • contribs) 15:14, 16 February 2016 (UTC)

Wikibook Project: Reflective Account
The Wikibooks project was something that I was excited about and was looking forward to learning about and completing. I think the idea of expanding our knowledge of the module whilst learning a completely new set of skills is an amazing idea and I hoped it would be as helpful and progressive to our learning of the module as possible. Within the first lab I was intrigued and excited at the challenges that lay ahead, I listened intently and understood and completed the first task, however following the admin mix up and deletion of the pages I was put off of the project.

The explanation of the tasks seemed simple and easy to understand, however when it came to doing it for ourselves a lot of patience was required, to which I feel was my main pitfall. The technicalities and specifics of the site were confusing and I found myself questioning how beneficial this was which ultimately led me into a negative mindset regarding the whole process. A mix of confusion and dismay, I felt there was little clarity within the project which made it difficult to encourage myself to attempt to do a good job.

The main problem I feel I was faced with was organisation, or lack of it. In terms of individual organisation I can easily say I did not make enough effort in managing my time and priorities correctly, I left everything till the last minute and then panicked which resulted in a disastrous attempt at the project as a whole. The reason for my lack of organisation probably stemmed from my lack of genuine understanding of the concepts and technicalities of the wikibooks site.

When it came to the group work aspect of the project, again organisation was the main issue. Living off campus and not knowing many people within my group played a big role in the lack of attempts to organise the project. There was no communication between my group and no meet ups arranged therefor the project was treated as an individual task.

When it came to the part of contributing to the group again a lot of patience and time was required. I found that the varying subjects, posts, groups and huge number of people involved was extremely challenging. Trying to contribute whilst a huge number of others were doing the same, on the same subjects, left little room to put your own stamp on it unless you had carried out the task straight away. With a confusing way of communicating and organising, and no leader in doing so I found this the most challenging part of the project.

Overall, I feel the concept of the project was great and I feel if I had understood the technicalities more, made more effort to understand it and dedicated the correct amount of organisation and time to the project then I would have had a more positive outcome. Unfortunately, lack of understanding, planning, organisation and contribution left me lost in the large and confusing territory of the wikibooks project. NicholeWhite13 (discuss • contribs) 14:35, 31 March 2016 (UTC)

Hi Nichole, unfortunately I agree with what you have written. When I first found out about the project I was really looking forward to starting it. I thought it would be a fun and interactive way to enhance my learning, learn new skills and improve working as a team. I think the whole concept of working within such a large group was bad organization and having to practically fight over things to write on really brought my mood down and made me not actually want to participate; it was almost forced! I noticed that we were writing on different chapters and I'm keen to find out how you actually found the understanding of your assigned chapter. What did you think about the topics you were writing on and how do you think the assignment could have been improved? SophieNHayes (discuss • contribs) 21:57, 7 April 2016 (UTC)

Hello Nichole, I completely understand that organization was a main difficultly of this project. It was hard to plan times for our groups to meet with everyone’s busy schedule, and it was also hard to divide the work up evenly. I was fortunate enough to have a great group of responsible girls, and we managed to submit all of our work on time. But I know that this was not the case for all groups in the class. In this sense, collective intelligence played a huge role in this project. We really did all have to work together to collaborate and make decisions. It was very beneficial to divide up the work and take one task at a time. I hope that your wiki project went okay overall. Georgiamattie (discuss • contribs) 03:47, 8 April 2016 (UTC)

Marker’s Feedback on Wikibook Project Work
A single contribution to the content of the chapter you were working on – no citation or reference to research, scholarship or other relevant materials offered. A little descriptive in character, although you do attempt to tie the section in to salient examples. A number of wiki exercises missing.

Wiki Exercises


 * Poor. Among other things, poor entries may just offer links without real comment or apparent point. They may offer nothing more than poor-quality synopsis or description of material of dubious relevance. They may have serious clarity problems (including dead links, random graphics) which affect comprehension (or even worse, admin warnings or take-down notices for copyright infringement). They might be off-topic, private trivia, or of unclear relevance. The wiki markup formatting will be of a poor standard.

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 limited critical engagement with set material, although most ideas and procedures insecurely grasped
 * evidence of independent reading of appropriate academic and peer-reviewed material limited, displaying a qualified familiarity with a minimally sufficient range of relevant materials
 * Argument and analysis:
 * poorly articulated and supported argument;
 * lack of evidence of critical thinking (through taking a position in relation to key ideas from the module, and supporting this position in discussion);
 * lack 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 independent critical ability limited, due to the fact that your grasp of the analytical issues and concepts, although generally reasonable, is somewhat insecure.

Engagement (weighted 50%)

 * Evidence from contributions to both editing and discussion of content suggests deficient standard of engagement (i.e. volume and breadth of activity as evidenced through contribs)
 * discernible lack of engagement with and learning from other Wikipedians about the task of writing/editing content for a Wikibook
 * Lacking in reflexive and creative use of discussion pages

Overall Mark % available on Succeed

FMSU9A4marker (discuss • contribs) 15:08, 3 May 2016 (UTC)