Working with prezi.com

To create the upcoming presentation about our project I thought it would be a good idea to try a new webtool: Prezi (www.prezi.com). I had heard about this tool before but this was the first time I actually worked with prezi on my own.

Before I was able to start working on the presentation I had to sign up and create my own account. Within this account all my future presentations will be saved and thus, I can work on them whereever and whenever I have access to the internet. In my opinion this is very effective and efficient when it comes to presenting. You do not necessarily need to bring your own computer because you can use whichever machine available.

Prezi provides a great deal of designs for presentations. I think this range of samples is a good way to get started. Since there are so many different tools that Prezi offers (besides the look) it is very helpful to have a final design. Furthermore, the sample also helps you organise the presentation. In addition, compared to the usual powerpoint presentation Microsoft offers, Prezi already included animation per se. This makes a very lively presentation!

My first attempt to use Prezi turned out quite well even though it took quite a lot of time to get used to how prezi is working. With regard to future presentations I think I would use Prezi again because it is a nice change to Microsoft's programme. Once you know how to work with Prezi it is relatively easy to handle the tool.

Reviewing the article

Questions 1 - 5:

1. What is the title of the article? Who is the author? Where and when did the article appear?

The article is called "The Endangered Scholarly Book Review" and was written by Lynn Worsham in April 2012. It was published on the website of "The Chronicle (of higher education)".


2. What are the authors credentials?

The author is a professor of English at Idaho State University and an Editor for JAC (A Journal of Rethoric, Culture and Politics).


3. What is the nature of the article?

It's a newspaper article.


4. What is the theme of the article?

The theme could be described as "the scholarly book review and its current situation".


5. Why did the author write it?

The author sees a decline in the book review section of a lot of scholarly journals. With this article she points out the importance of saving these kinds of reviews from extinction.

Reviewing the article tasks

Hey,
here are our answers to today's task.

Reviewing the article (Questions 6 to 14 by Hella and Miriam)

What does the author claim?

Even though many publications do not offer scholarly reviews anymore (if they do, they only publish reviews online), the author thinks that book reviews are still very important for intellectual life.

How does she support this?

1.       Worsham is of the opinion that writing book reviews is a good practice for both advanced doctoral students and new staff of the faculties when it comes to develop intellectual skills that are necessary for scholarly writing.

2.       Well written reviews do have important function within the scholarly community because everyone can make decisions based on the reviews.

3.       The number of reviews shows the scholarly reputation because the more reviews the higher reputation.

  

What is the overall appeal of the article (or lack thereof)? Give reasons.

With her article, Worsham wants to encourage people to go on writing reviews and publishing them. As pointed out before, the author is convinced that book reviews are necessary for the scholarly community. Her conviction includes the idea that book reviews are a good practice for scholars in terms of intellectual skills. In addition to this, reviews function as decision maker and show the scholars’ reputation.  

Do you agree or disagree with what the writer suggests? Why?

We agree to what the writer suggests. Even though we do not write scholarly reviews and thus reviews do not provide practice concerning our writing skills, scholarly reviews do help us on choosing books that we read and work with.

What options does the article suggest? Explain.

The answer and explanation to this question can be found in “How does she support this?”.

Do you know of any other writings on this theme? Do they coincide with what you think or what the author thinks?

Since this is the first time we have considered book reviews and how to write such pieces, we do not know any other writings on this theme yet.

Does the article provide any new insights for you or a larger reading audience?

The article provides some new insights for us. First, we did not know that you need to get permission to write a review. Secondly, we were not aware of the fact that you should only review the newest publications. Worsham points out that it takessome time until a review gets published and thus, it is of great importance to only write reviews on new publications.

Give your overall evaluation and recap your main reasons for this.

We think that the article is very well written and has a clear style. This makes it very easy to follow the thoughts of the author and understand her argumentation. There are no difficult words or phrases which also help to get the author’s point. Beneficial is also the fact that Worsham provides some tips on how to write a good review. We will keep this in mind for our action research on the reading list.

Would you recommend this article, and if so, to whom?

Yes, we would recommend the article to our fellow students because Worsham not only points out the importance of book reviews, but also provides tips for writing a good review.

Comprehension task: infed (Alexander)

Comprehension task: infed (Alexander)

8) Mactaggert states that AR is not a “method” or “procedure” for research. What is it, then, in his view?
According to Mactaggert AR is research in itself and not just a method to conduct a practical approach for one's own hypothesis.



9) Scan through the works listed in Further Reading. Which of these titles appeal to you? Why?

I'd like to read Action Research as a Living Practice by T.R. Carson and D.J. Sumara to get a more general idea about Action Research.

Working with Wikispaces.com

Creating a wiki is not as easy as one would hope. Thankfully I have been creating complex structures on web pages and various other media. So, I'm aware of linking, formatting and navigating when it comes to creating a project like this.
The first thing to do is to sit down with a sheet of paper and sketch your tree of web pages. That way, you already get an idea of how big your project is going to be. Be clear about your structure before you start. With your tree you can begin building the basic frame work. Adding content is the last step.
After the first few pages have been created, you will have to organize them. Wikispaces uses a tagging system in which you can create a tag like “British Literature”. Now use this tag on one of the pages like “19^th century” that is supposed to end up in the “British Literature” column. Pages can be arranged in whatever order you wish. Personally, I wanted my own navigational template. After watching one of the many training videos on the official YouTube channel – which can be accessed via the help menu – I was able to create the template.
Another important aspect is linking. Wikispaces makes it very simple. Edit your page and click on the symbol for adding a link. A pop up appears where you can choose from all your pages you have created so far. Putting in an external link or a link to a specific page from another wiki is also a possibility. The long web address can be disguised as underlined text. The tree now becomes more real.
Wikispaces is a very comfortable online platform to work with, if you bring a little bit of experience to the table. Many of the useful editing tools are not easily accessible, so that you will maybe get frustrated very soon.

Periods of British Literature

My task this far was to think about how we want to integrate the different literary epochs into our wiki, focusing on the British reading list. There are several movements/periods mentioned on the reading list and my first thought was to list them all in chronological order e.g.:

Renaissance
Elizabethan Age
Jacobean Age
etc.

However following this plan would leave us with a rather long list of about 15 periods (only for the British list). Therefore the next approach included another distinction (centuries) in order to achieve a more structured result:

16th - 17th century: Renaissance
                                 Elizabethan Age
                                 Jacobean Age

17th - 18th century: Restoration
                                 Enlightenment
                                 etc.

This structure follows more or less the same pattern as the reading list. Another question we had to ask ourselves was, whether or not it would be possible for us to write a paragraph about each of the periods, in addition to all the information about the books and authors. In the end we came to the conclusion that each of us will write a short paragraph about the period in which the book he/she is going to read was written. Therefore each of us is going to choose a book from a different period and since three of us are studying American literature and the other two British literature, we have a more or less even number for both reading lists.

Comprehension task: infed (Gwynneth)

6. What are the three basic phases of community-based action research according to stinger?

- Look
- Think
- Act

7. How do Kemmis and McTaggert see the relationship between collaborative and individual action?

A resaerch approach can only be regarded as action research, when it is carried out by a group. Ultimately though the action research is achieved by the action each group member takes and the critical reflection on it.


9. The book I would consider reading is "Creating Practical Knowledge Through Action Research" by Quigley and Kuhne, because it seems like a good introduction to action research with interesting examples.

Preface Reading List

Hey guys,
here is the preface for the reading list Hella and I wrote.

"Preface Reading List:

The reading list is supposed to give you a first and basic overview of both old literature and new literature, and, depending on your studies, of British literature or American literature. This can happen in the context of either a seminar or in self-study.  The reading list is not only meant to give you basic knowledge of literature, but also of the different eras.  The list and the works listed within are only suggestions. Thus if you find other comparable alternatives, you are free to read those. It is a good idea to record your reading and to take some notes on the books you have read. This way you will be able to give an account of your working with the reading list at the end of your studies- in form of a final exam.

It is advised for BA students to focus on four different priority areas. For the American reading list these might be romanticism, postmodernism, Native American literature and Asian American Literature. For the British reading list you should choose not more than two genres of an era for instance prose of the 20^th century.

MA- students are supposed to pay closer attention to at least six priority areas.

For both reading lists it is advisable to purchase a good British/ American history of literature."

Using Google Drive for the very first time!

Since Miriam and I needed to work on an introduction to the reading list, we decided that it would be the easiest to use Google Drive. This way, we could both work on the document, and save it on the internet.

Google Drive is a Google-related tool that allows you to upload a documen, and share it with other people. Every one invited can then work on the document and make changes the others can see and work with.

The tool is very easy to work with. You only need to login, choose “upload”, and then invite the relevant people. These people get an invitation email to confirm the document sharing. Now everyone invited can work on the document.

We found the tool very easy to handle. All the instructions are very clear, and you can start working right away. It is a good way to communicate, and work with other people. 

Eras of American Literature

This is a short introduction to the different eras of American literature. Here is basic information about important facets of and a general picture about the characteristics of each era. American Renaissance, Realism or Postmodernism, each period has its own significance.
This round-up can help you to adjust and organize your research in the literary list. Listed are the the dates, important authors, works and attributes.
The university uses this classification in its literature list.


Prose
Colonial Period
Early Republic
Romanticism
Realism/Naturalism
Modernism
Postmodernism


Ethnic Literature
Jewish-American Lierature
African American Literature
Asian American Literature
Hispanic Literature
Native American Literature

Wiki introduction

Hey,
I kind of wrote an introduction for our Wiki, I hope it is what you imagined it to be, if not feel free to change it.

"We all know how it feels impossible to work through the reading list in any way and choose one novel, poem or dram you want to work on. So we, a group of five people, created this Wiki to help you master your workload. We hope that the Wiki will help you decide which author or work to read. For that you can firstly choose between the reading list for American literature or British literature. Furthermore you have the opportunity to choose either the era you want to look at, a specific author or you can directly choose one specific poem, novel or drama. In each section you will find useful background information on the author or helpful notes on the work or era, as well as key terms, brief summaries and explanations on specific terms. Feel free to click yourself through the section and we hope that the Wiki is of any help to you."

What to expect from our wiki

The “product” of the action research that we are currently doing will be a so-called wiki that we will set up. This wiki will provide information on the different works of the reading lists for both British literature and American literature. Since we know there is little time during our studies to read the full amount of poetry, prose, and drama students are supposed to work on, we aim at supplying the students with basic knowledge of as many items of the reading list as possible.

Within our wiki, there will be separate segments that focus on different topics. Of course, all users will find a little introduction to the website. Besides this introductory information, the users will see a column for British literature as well one for American literature. Within both of these segments, there will be an alphabetical list of works that the user can choose from. Also, available within another column, there will be additional information on the different eras either with regard to British literature or American literature. To make it very easy to get information on a single author, the wiki will also contain a list of authors the user can get informed about.

Once added to the wiki, there will be a brief summary of the item as well as an overview of the main themes, characters, symbols or likewise. The wiki will not replace reading the book/poem/etc. but will help students understand and analyse the individual item. It also aims at supporting the students in choosing an item from the numerous ones on the reading list.

Concerning the eras, the user will find an overview of the period as well as information on the most important authors, and topics during that time.

The segment about the authors will provide basic knowledge of the writers and their backgrounds as well as a list of the most important works.

It has to be said that this is just the first structure of our wiki. Changes might occur during the time of the project.