Reflective writing

[JoshuaM_TIGS]

During Information and Software Technology this term, we have been involved in the digiteen project, which taught us digital elements and how to be a digital citizen. We have been also learning how to use information systems and websites. Using these websites helped us communicate with our team mates across the world.

The Ning and Wiki were the sites which we posted our work on. The Ning was used for more personal use, communicating with our team mates, and posting our forum and blog posts on, which were all very important. The Wiki was used to publish all our work that we had done for our topics and discuss with our partners on what we did, how we can improve this information, and what we will publish on our page next.

The topic that I worked on was digital literacy. At first I thought it was a pretty hard subject, I didn’t really know what to type. After a few days, reading on the internet and some books, I started to get to work on the wiki page. I learnt that digital literacy is to use electronic devices and information systems properly and efficiently, instead of abusing and taking advantage of them.

While I was working on the page, I was kind of disappointed to see that my group hadn’t really worked on my page, nearly none at all. No one was talking over the discussion tab, and I had limited communication with my other team members. Other groups in my class though had more success then me, some putting in so much information that there was little information to add.

Getting feedback from our teachers and team mates was an important part in publishing the information on the wiki. The main way we did this was using the discussion tab on our wiki page. This was a very important part in our project, because it showed us how our team was going with the project. Although I didn’t get much feedback from my team mates, my teacher commented on our page, which helped a lot. One of the main problems though with most people was that some pages were crammed up with information, leaving little to add, or other pages having only a few paragraphs.

Two of the main things that interfered with editing the wiki and ning pages was our year camp and exam week. Before we left for camp, we left a message on the discussion tab, and some people sent messages to their team mates over the Ning, saying that we would be away and probably won’t be editing the page for a while. When I got back, I was happy to see some updates on the page, which helped with the editing of our topic page.

Another thing that did help us was our teacher sending us emails to remind us of assignments and other sorts of writing that had to be handed in. They also included the sites that we would have to sign up to so we could continue in our never ending quest to learn about digital citizenship. We could also send drafts to our teacher, which he responded and told us what we could do better.

Some of the improvements that I could suggest would be to be more organized, as in making sure students had joined sites properly, and for teachers to keep commenting on students wiki pages, making sure they are keeping up to date with their work. Also encouraging students to reply and start their own wiki forums, and to be sociable with others.

Over all, the whole project taught me more about information systems and using them properly, and some new things, like effects of cyber bullying, digital literacy and digital citizenship. I have really enjoyed learning about these topics, and talking to other people from around the world, and I would be glad to do it again.