User talk:Nikynikay

Wiki Exercise #1: Educational Assignment
Trip Advisor is an American website in which users publish travel-related reviews (hotels, restaurants, pubs..). Personally, I discovered this web site a few years ago, and since then I became addicted to it. When I want to travel, before booking a hotel, I check reviews on this site and get an idea of what might be better for me, according to the users’ previous experiences. Even when I just want to go out and have some dinner, Trip Advisor becomes my favourite tool that helps me to look for a nice place where to spend a nice time. In particular, I find this website very helpful when I want to have a meal out. My favourite thing provided by Trip Advisor, in fact, is that, when you are looking for a restaurant, you can filter the choices you have by picking just one type of food. If you want to go for, shall we say, Italian food, Trip Advisor provides you a list of all the Italian restaurants in the city you are interested in. Recently, the website has also increased the list of the foods you can choose from, giving you the chance to discover and try something new. You can then filter the distance from your position, or, even better, the score based on other users’ reviews so you can have an idea of what it is best around you. Another great thing about it, is that it does not require any account if you just want to read reviews; if you want, though, write some comments yourself, than an account is demanded, but you can easily do that with Facebook, which makes things easier and helps you to spare time. Last but not least, a great thing that the website provides is a mobile phone application, which makes easier to discover restaurants or hotels when you are already out. I use it more than the website because I find it quicker and more intuitive. Obviously, we are all different and tastes can change from person to person, so I might not like something that someone else likes instead. However, I believe that Trip Advisor is a great tool that helps you not to waste your money and time, and, honestly, I could not do without it.

Nikynikay (discuss • contribs)

I would first of all like to thank you for sharing your views and experiences on the this particular website. I myself travel quite a lot, but I've always had trouble finding the right places to go sightseeing, for food, hotels, etc. I was recently on the site and I realised as well that there is a tab that indicates the best of 2016 which allows everyone to find what they are interested in, and with an up-to-date review of it. The fact that the website itself can also come in the form of an app make it easier for us nowadays since we may not be constantly on our laptops, but we are definitely near our phones. It makes it easy as well if we are sitting around thinking about a holiday, to take out our phones and quickly go on the app and look things up. However when I was researching information about the website, i came across an interesting point: we should bear in mind that sometimes the reviews that we read may be defamatory comments which could be untrue or mainly based on one bad experience the reviewer had. Aside from that i believe the app is a great way to quickly find information about any holiday worldwide. Valesagasti (discuss • contribs) 12:46, 18 February 2016 (UTC)

Wiki Exercise 1: Formative Feedback
This is a competent description of Trip Advisor which outlines some of its main benefits. The exercise could be improved through greater integration of wiki markup (and don't forget to sign your name with 4 tildes to ensure you include a date stamp) and through further critical analysis of the subject. In this case, you could have talked about how Trip Advisor changes the experience of being a tourist in an unfamiliar location and how the ratings on Trip Advisor can be an important part of your whole experience. Your comments show a great deal of encouragement to colleagues but would benefit from a critical engagement with their topic.

A post of this standard roughly corresponds to the following grade descriptor: Satisfactory. Among other things, satisfactory entries may try to relate an idea from the module to an original example, but might not be very convincing. They may waste space on synopsis or description, rather than making a point. They may have spelling or grammatical errors and typos. They might not demonstrate more than a single quick pass at the assignment, informed only by lecture and/or cursory reading. They may suggest reading but not thinking (or indeed the reverse). The wiki markup formatting will need some work. Sprowberry (discuss • contribs) 10:43, 29 February 2016 (UTC)

Wiki Exercise #2: Visibility and Online Footprint
Although I am completely into social networks and the Internet in general, I have always tried (and keep doing it) not to share a lot of details about myself, and my life. But should not be that the purpose of social networks, someone may ask? Well, it might be true somehow, in fact, in the last few years social networks have become a very important tool in people’s life; some of them, indeed, are completely addicted to it and have decided to share every single information about themselves, not only by posting photos, but also by sharing their thoughts about matters that, in my opinion, should be remain private or, at least, visible not to everybody. I realize, although, that we are all different and something that, for me, should not be told in a social network, might be something that would not bother someone else at all. I think it all depends on how much every single of us is willing to push forward. Personally, I use the principle and famous social networks (Instagram, Facebook and YouTube) to check out, when I am bothered, what other people – that I know, barely know, not know at all – do, but, especially, to follow groups about my interests and things I love, like TV shows, books, films. That is the primary reason why I use Facebook, in the specific. I think that Facebook is becoming more and more ‘invasive’, as a social network. It asks you to give very personal information, not just your name, date of birth, where did you study, where are you from or where you live at the moment, but in the last year it started to ask you if you want to share your mobile phone. I don’t think so, thank you. You can change your privacy settings and make this information visible just to a restricted bunch of people, to be honest, but I prefer not to write all of them at all, in a first place. I just limit myself to share my real name, hometown, and my studies. On Instagram, I do not post photos very often, not because I do not want to be visible online or to share my life (I consider Instagram less ‘invasive’ than Facebook, so this makes me feel more ‘hidden’ and ‘safe’, shall we say) but just because I am not really into taking pictures; once again, I just limit myself to watch what other people share and take pictures to. Some of them are really good at it, and a nice picture is always something pleasant to look at. YouTube is another platform that makes you very visible, just if you let it to do so. In the last few years, this social network has become a really powerful tool, giving to people, who have decided to take a challenge, great opportunities. Some of them, thanks to YouTube, have actually become very rich and famous. I am not the case, of course, in fact I do not post videos, but I use it a lot to watch every kind of content that the platform proposes. Are you interested in listening to the new Adele’s heart-breaking single? Check it on YouTube. Are you interested in making a pie, but you do not have a satisfactory recipe book? Check it on YouTube. As I said, therefore, I use social networks more as a spectator, than as someone who directly gives contents to other people, so I do not actually have to worry about what it is visible, how much is visible, who is going to see my life. I decide what I want to make public, and generally I share things that I know they would not give to other people ‘too much’. The less you give, the less they get.

Nikynikay (discuss • contribs) 10:25, 24 February 2016 (UTC)

I feel more or less the same as you in regards to seeing myself as a "spectator" on most social media platforms as opposed to providing content to others; I get more enjoyment out of reading about things I like and interesting stories rather than trying to post my own. I also relate in terms of wanting to not have to write certain info (e.g. Phone number) at all on sites like Facebook regardless of privacy settings - even though I know the sites are secure part of me is still reluctant to have to do this at all. It's interesting to see how much information some people are willing to make public and how much this has changed over the past few years with the rising popularity of social media! CalSmith96 (discuss • contribs) 21:50, 24 February 2016 (UTC)

I agree with you that everyone is different so social media should be used in whatever way it suits that person, which is allowed to be done through in depth privacy settings. While I would add that even though it shouldn’t matter how much or little you share online, it could be argued that how much you distribute affects the impression others may have of you, especially in this culture where some people think you can be defined by your social media pages. In terms of my own use in regard to your points, I don’t have or use as much social media as people in my peer group so wouldn’t even be regarded as a spectator. One of the main reasons I don’t use as much is that I don’t feel a need to share information so don’t take the time to create the accounts, I could create accounts and be a spectator like both of you but have done it before and ended up not even looking at it. I do see some positives with social media like you mentioned, reading about interests and I am not against social media, but just use it in my own limited way. Kieranmcm95 (discuss • contribs) 12:58, 25 February 2016 (UTC)

I agree with what you said about Facebook becoming more and more invasive. Personally, this scares me and puts me off posting things as if I'm being honest I have not spent the time reading and looking at all the privacy settings so I'm not really sure how private my Facebook is, they always seem to be changing and updating the settings anyway so I find it hard to keep up. This has made me switch to other social medias such as twitter and instagram and I now find myself more visible on those sites because I feel safer posting things on them. Even though at the end of the day anything you do post online can probably be seen by anyone. --Amy Wardle (discuss • contribs) 11:37, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

Wiki Exercise #3: Information Overload!
Information is everywhere because they are created, shared and available in every virtual interaction space in every moment, thanks to the amount of electronic devices we can choose from. For this reason, we have now reached the paradox of the information overload: we can get so much information – most of it useless and unnecessary – that handling them becomes very difficult. In the worst cases, the information overload makes more difficult the comprehension of a problem and prevents us from taking the right decision about that. Psychologists have argued some symptoms caused by the stress of having to deal with a lot of information: the Information Fatigue Syndrome (IFS) and the Information Anxiety, which can lead to serious consequences. The stress caused by the information overload has become serious, especially in the field of work: according to the Financial Times, in fact, Thierry Breton, chief executive of Atos, launched his ‘zero email initiative’ last year, discouraging Atos employees from sending or receiving internal messages. This decision was made because the amount of time spent in deleting useless mails was enormous and unproductive. According to the experts, the solution to the information overload must begin with an information diet, which consists in keeping just the information we actually need, and deleting the useless ones. When we use the Internet, we have to deal every day with an amount of data and it is impossible for us to be able to read every single link or content. So, how can we select just the info we want to keep? Personally, I try to prearrange a precise and limited amount of time to read my emails and to use social networks; what distracts me the most, though, are all the instant messaging apps, like WhatsApp, Skype or Messenger, and if I really need to work on something, I must limit myself in using them. Another way that I find helpful is to choose the type of sources where to get the info from, preferring the most trustworthy ones and avoiding those already filtered by other people. Of course, for people who are really into the Internet, it is easy to be tempted and to look on Facebook or Twitter new arguments, or to subscribe to another newsletter, getting, once again, a lot of data we don’t really need. I think, though, that all depends not only on the Internet era and how much it has become ‘invasive’, but also on us. In the end, we can control and decide the type of info we get, in the most of the cases, and avoid being distracted by things we don’t need in that particular moment. In this case, I think we just have to try to stay focused on what really matters and establish our priorities. That’s what I do, especially when I need to work on an essay or something related to the University: in that moment, my priority is to get a good mark and to do a nice job, something to be proud of. It all depends on priorities. And willpower.

Nikynikay (discuss • contribs) 11:17, 2 March 2016 (UTC)

Wiki Exercise #4: Wikibook Project Reflective Account
The economic, cultural and social changes that we have seen emerging in the last decade are born with the purpose to transform our country and to move from an industrial production system based on work, to a completely new one based on knowledge, in which the working group becomes a very important matter (Bell, 1973; Drucker, 1993), as well as creativity. Therefore, if creativity has a primary role in the society we are living in – a “knowledge society” – then teachers and instructors must prepare students to actively and creatively participate to this knowledge progression.

According to this, we can affirm that in the “Knoweledge Society” the community’s welfare and progress depend more and more on citizens’ innovation skills and on their participation to make the knowledge advance. We should establish as objective the capacity to work creatively with our ideas, in order to improve the existing theories and, at the same time, increase our level of knowledge. The progress – seen as a process in which the ideas get improved – involves a few implications in the educational field, because it helps, on one hand, not to consider knowledge as something true or final, and, on the other hand, not to treat it as a matter of subjective opinion (Bereiter, Scardamalia, Cassels & Hewitt, 1997). The difficulty emerging here is to transform these theories in practice, by teaching students the meaning of creating knowledge and working in a creative and cooperative way through ideas.

In this sense, the Wikibooks project has been an interesting and new way for students to cooperate and ‘to build’ something together. Obviously, as for every kind of project or work, which demands more people getting involved, it’s very easy to succumb to some problems. When it comes to deal with a lot of people, there will always be the one who tries to step forward and to take the control of the situation, maybe leaving to others less space or mode to operate. Especially, when the project is online and that requires you and other people you’re working with, to stay behind a computer and not to interact with them face-to-face, the matter becomes more complicated and misunderstandings are inevitable. Again, working with a lot of people is not an easy task, because everyone has their own opinion and their personality, and even if the purpose is the same for all – to do a good job – there will always be the tendency to think for ourselves (especially in this case where everyone gets a personal mark). Despite of this, face-to-face meetings have some flaws as well, because it would not let more than 10 people to interact together without going crazy. In this sense, an online project might sound good so everyone can do their job and they don’t have to face people directly – maybe even people they don’t like or know – which sometimes might require a lot of patience. In any case, any kind of work – online or face-to-face as well – that requires more people cooperating are never easy. However, what it matters in the end is the work to be successful and I think we managed to do that.

Comments
"Teachers and instructors must prepare students to actively and creatively participate to this knowledge progression." I feel like in this project teachers failed in preparing us, with that I do not mean that they did not gave us the basic tools for approaching a wiki environment but they could have gone more in depth in teaching us the wiki markup for example. I know that they told us to take a look at the Teahouse if we needed help, but that was extremely time consuming whereas if we had all the information about markup given in one of the computer labs we could have avoided stupid mistakes and we could have used our time in a wiser way. In addition, as Robertson states, when the teachers cannot offer an effective guidance, students tend to focus on their personal interests instead of developing a shared understanding and aiming to a common goal, which was quite evident in our project as many people cared more about themselves rather than trying to create valuable knowledge. Of course teachers cannot be blamed for everything that went wrong; diversity among students, deadlines, responsibility lags, difficulty in cooperating: all these aspects are big limitations of the wiki environment used as an educational tool. GConcilio94 (discuss • contribs) 14:31, 7 April 2016 (UTC)

I agree about there being a lot of potential issues when working on a project with as many people as this one did - especially when it comes to getting replies. Even though there is a mention system in place it was still hit or miss whether the person you're mentioning would see your comment in time since they would only be alerted when they chose to visit the site (as opposed to getting notifications on their mobile phone/etc). For me most people replied within 24 hours but it still felt like progress was getting held up, but considering the huge amount of people involved altogether talking online was definitely easier and less hectic than it would be face-to-face, as you said. CalSmith96 (discuss • contribs) 17:24, 7 April 2016 (UTC)

Marker’s Feedback on Wikibook Project Work
Your engagement occurs over a short burst of time but you show clear signs of collaboration and generosity with peers. Your exercises got better over time with more evidence of critical engagement and reference to the secondary material, and there is clear engagement with theory and relevant sources in your chapter contributions.

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, clearly grounded on close familiarity with concepts and ideas encountered on the module
 * evidence of independent reading of appropriate academic and peer-reviewed material through evidence of close familiarity with a wide range of evidence
 * Argument and analysis:
 * well-articulated and well-supported argument featuring appreciable depth of understanding
 * good level of critical thinking (through taking a position in relation to key ideas from the module, and supporting this position in discussion);
 * good 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 appreciable independent critical ability

Engagement (weighted 50%)

 * Evidence from contributions to both editing and discussion of content to a variable standard (i.e. volume and breadth of activity as evidenced through contribs)
 * Satisfactory engagement with and learning from other Wikipedians about the task of writing/editing content for a Wikibook
 * Reflexive, creative and fairly well-managed use of discussion pages using deployment of somewhat limited judgement relating to key issues, concepts or procedures

Overall Mark % available on Succeed

FMSU9A4marker (discuss • contribs) 14:54, 3 May 2016 (UTC)