2/23/09 Update: Welcome Teaching Carnival 3.2 visitors!

Work began today on the 2.0 version of the Basic Writing Wikibook, a project begun in 2007 with my Theory of Basic Writing class. My current class has a strong interest in the points where Basic Writing and ESL needs overlap, so a third major division was added for the ESL student. There’s not much added yet, but the broad changes are laid out. We’ll probably work on it again in class next Friday, given how positive the collaborative drafting was this time.

I tried something a bit different this time for that drafting session. The computer classroom is very much engaged during my class time, so I brought my Macbook and the Asus Eee PC to supplement what the class members could bring. After several years of hoping and trying, I finally had full class coverage and could do a wireless day in the regular classroom where each class member had a laptop.

The in-class orientation for the Wikibook was important. Although the documentation on the Wikibooks site is quite good, I’ve found that going into the edit pages to duplicate structure works even better. On top of that, when students work side by side with mostly their own laptops, great co-mentoring opportunities open up. As one student figures out how to do a internal link, he can share with the next student. When another student adds a new page, she can show the steps to the next one who needs that knowledge. I acted as a facilitator, looking for the moments when someone needed a nudge or a suggestion. It went well and all feel more confident about working on their own in the next week before they collaborate again.

This method also gives them a sense-memory rather than head-knowledge only about how effective co-mentoring is when trying new writing genres. That experience makes it more likely that these students will try it in their own classrooms rather than sticking to lecture for new concepts. The knowledge of how they helped each other learn a new kind of writing will help them trust their Basic Writing students to do the same for each other while they act as facilitator.