StpmWiki:Advantages
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Study Experiences
To provide truly useful content on StpmWiki, it is necessary to dissect the main components of the students study experience, and see how StpmWiki can recreate the best aspects of each component while removing/minimizing its weaknesses/barriers.
Lessons in Class
It is often said that teachers in class should act as a guide to the students, rather than just a source of information. This is even more true in form 6. All STPM subjects have humongous scope. It's virtually impossible for the teachers to cover everything in those very limited time in class. But it isn't just impossible. It's pointless. STPM requires a certain level of thinking skills in order for a candidate to do well in it. Without those skills, all a student can hope for is to scrap by, even after working very hard throughout the 1 and a half years. This is especially true for science stream students. And it is these skills that a teacher will try to guide the students to develop during those lessons in class. With good questioning technique, a teacher can guide a student to learn in an hour what he/she would have taken hours to learn by themselves (or could never learn by themselves) using normal print materials.
However, there are too many factors that will affect the effectiveness of that process. Difference in students level is of course one of the main concerns of a teacher. In fact, we can't even guarantee two students with the same level can follow a lesson at the exact same speed. And that is before we even look at external factors that will disrupt the communication process. And there is always the time factor (lack of time, that is). The lesson is also not persistent, once the lesson is over, its over. Yes, there might be notes, but the guidance from teacher is gone, only recorded in the students mind (if it was transferred successful).
Aspects StpmWiki is to Recreate
- By using some well placed <hide></hide> tags (but not always necessary), we can recreate the questioning aspects of lessons in class on StpmWiki. This can be as simple as the set induction, to highly focused questioning to guide the students through the lesson (through every single step in a solution in maths, for example). Basically, every question that is normally asked in class can be put here, together with the expected (not necessarily correct) answers. By nesting the tags, we can also recreate sequential and divergent questioning.
- Basically everything else that is said in class (that is not the main content) can be recreated here. These include prior knowledge, analogous examples, misconceptions, related exam tips, alternative methods, etc. The <hide></hide> tags is useful to keep extra materials hidden until required, so as to not to overwhelm the main contents.
Aspects StpmWiki is to Improve
- By recreating practically the whole class lesson on StpmWiki:
- Students can review the lesson after the lesson has past at their own speed, and away from distractions
- Anything that the teacher might have missed out (not enough time/forgot/not suitable for majority of students) during the actual lesson in class can still be referred on StpmWiki
- The lesson can encompass all levels, with extra notes (hidden/linked) to complement the main contents (for weaker AND also more advanced students)
- By putting the lessons on StpmWiki for collaboration or at least peer review:
- A very high quality and error free lesson can be produced
- The lesson can be reproduced anywhere by any teachers, or at least can be a valuable resource for teachers inexperienced in that subject
Drawbacks of StpmWiki to be Minimized
- While it is possible to recreate the lesson, we can't however create a teacher to respond to every different possible questions or problems faced by students in that lesson. Thus, whenever possible, it is best to be as thorough as possible in the lesson. If not handled with care however, the content could end up as one big mess that students find difficult to navigate and that the flow of the lesson is disrupted with too many questions and supplementary materials. What we can do here is prepare thorough content, but at the same time spend a lot of time to arrange, place/hide them at appropriate places, and also place enough markers to guide the students. Allowing actual post questions on the site can also minimize this weakness, but this again, should be handled with care.
Textbooks
Textbooks are of course the main study material of students, at least that is what its meant to be. Unlike SPM however, there are no official list of textbooks required to be used by certain states. Whether that is a good thing or not is up to debate of course. Textbooks, as a written form, provide thorough content throughout the whole syllabus, as well as providing good exercises for the students. As every student should have it, it is always accessible to the student at any time. Some textbooks have also gone through various revision, thus improving while still retaining its qualities over the years.
However, a lot of times, the situation is not ideal. It isn't my place to criticize any of the available textbooks, so instead I will just put forward the present case.
- The number of textbooks available isn't determined by how many qualified authors there are, it is determined by how many publishers there are.
- The persons who know the STPM requirements (together with all the in's and out's) the most, are probably not allowed to write books.
- The persons who understand students need the most, are probably too busy in school to spend time writing books.
Simply put, we don't get always get the best and most suitable people to write these books.
Secondly, textbooks, as a printed material, will also of course be subject to the constraints of printed materials.
- There is ALWAYS going to be space constraints, together with other technical constraints such as usage of colour, etc, which limits the contents that can be fitted into a single textbook
- Mistakes cannot be corrected easily. Even if they could be...
- There simply isn't a mechanism to report mistakes.
Aspects StpmWiki is to Recreate
- Textbooks are often seen by default as the number one reference. StpmWiki should strive for that same recognition that is rightly (and sometimes wrongly) given to textbooks. This shouldn't be seen as competition, but rather a statement to the responsibility in making sure that StpmWiki provide content that is correct and suitable for use for all STPM students. In other words, just because this is a website doesn't mean we can take it easier compared to writing an actual book. In fact, it probably means more work.
- This also means StpmWiki should strive for the completeness of a textbook. This, of course, will take time. But this aim should never be forgotten.
- Exercises - This will be touched on below
Aspects StpmWiki is to Improve
- Content on StpmWiki can be easily edited and it is instantly updated.
- StpmWiki can expand its content beyond what is possible in a printed textbook. There are no space constraints. This gives much more flexibility to add/link/hide supplementary materials.
- We can add a layer of interactivity to the content which is not possible using print materials.
- By combining the lesson and textbook aspect in one place, there will be more coherence and continuity.
Drawbacks of StpmWiki to be Minimized
- The biggest drawback would be, of course, StpmWiki isn't print material, which means students can't take it with them for the purpose of a textbook as easily. As technology improves and becomes more affordable though, this will change. It is already currently being loaded onto netbooks and ipod touches.
Exercises in Print Material
Exercises are part and parcel in a students learning. Studying concepts and doing exercises go hand in hand and they are actually parallel processes rather than one after the other. There are various types of exercise, suitable for different needs of a student.
Such a big component of a students study experience, of course, would not be without its issues. We have already stated the problems with print materials, and they apply here too. Space constraints, lack of interactivity, mistakes that can’t be corrected easily, etc. We will see how all these will actually bring about bigger issues. The space constraints will sometimes leave place only for answers, not the working. This is especially true in textbooks, though there are exceptions. Other than having students who gets frustrated at being unable to get the answers (and thus give up), this situation can bring about an even more dangerous situation ; that of student concocting some major misconception just so to get the answer. This is compounded if there are careless mistakes in the print material. Q & A/Practice books, with full solutions, can offer a better solution, though it has to be stated that not all students take the initiative to get them. Along with the same problem of careless mistakes, these types of books have another problem. Being written as stand alone books (though they do sometimes have short notes), there is sometimes a lack of coherence with the main materials (text books in this case) which can further confuse the students. These books often have a list of full solutions, which while isn’t a weakness in itself, is missing a very crucial component, that of guidance. The solution is there, but the why’s and why not’s are not there, along with the what if's and how about's. As for model/clone/forecast papers, they do have their purpose, even if that is just what they are; past year questions recycled over and over again, with solutions of variable quality. The problem again, is students using them in the wrong way.
The problem then, isn’t so much with these materials, but with the students using them wrongly. But they don’t really have choice, there simply isn’t anything else available.
Aspects StpmWiki is to Recreate
- Since space isn’t an issue, we can put in StpmWiki all types and all levels of questions and place them in appropriate places
Aspects StpmWiki is to Improve
- Other than just providing answers/solution, we can also provide the much needed guidance, either side by side with the solution or with extra notes or other suitable methods. This doesn’t only refer to the question itself, but follow-up questions, further investigation, etc
- By combining everything (lesson, textbook, exercise) in one place, we can better guide the students to learn the correct way , which is NOT the step 1, step2, step3 way but rather an integrated way which involves all aspects.
Small Group Tutorials
Material for tutorials are simply exercises, and thus we will not touch on the things we have touched on above but look at other aspects. Tutorials in small groups, guided by an experienced teacher, can make a lot of difference to a student’s learning. Of course, self study also has its benefits, but the majority of students in form 6 would need some sort of guidance. Furthermore, having a guide not only speeds up the process, it also minimizes the build up of wrong conceptions/methods by the students.
The only problem is time. However, this isn’t referring to students time. They DO have enough time, they just must know how to use it. Going to countless tuitions isn’t going to help if they aren’t going to use the correct study method. The lack of time here, of course, refer to the teacher. Not only does it take hours, we also have to take the “small group” into consideration. And even in small groups, it’s hard to coordinate everyone’s speed.
Aspects StpmWiki is to Recreate & Improve
In tutorials, the aim is always to guide, though some re-teaching is necessary from time to time. Though we can’t make it real time, the guidance that StpmWiki can possibly provide, as well as the ease of linking (for revising & re-teaching) makes StpmWiki at least a better-than-nothing substitute for a guiding teacher. A single terminal can serve as a reference point to a group of studying students.
Highly Interactive Media
Using technologies like flash, coursewares that are highly interactive can be produced. These coursewares can be used both by the teachers to simplify and improve teaching and also for the students to do self learning. These technologies enable a high level of interactivity, giving instant feedback to the students input. And in self learning, it enables the student to study at his/her own pace. Also, moving diagrams (flash/video) can illustrate concepts much better than static ones.
However, coursewares suffers from some of the same problems of print materials. The first, is of course, the content. Voice-overs, nice user interface to go from one page to another, and fancy interfaces to the exercises, etc... DO NOT make good content appear magically. In fact, in trying to make everything nice and fancy, content is sometimes neglected. As with printed materials, mistakes can't be corrected easily. Actually, at least with books, we still can just tell our students to take a pencil and correct it.
Furthermore, there are also the additional potential software/hardware problems with these materials. Though not necessarily common and irreparable, it’s nevertheless frustrating whenever we get errors when we try to run the program or when the disc is simply scratched beyond repair. And then there is the problem of files formats compatibility. Copyright aside, it’s not always easy to extract some good parts from the courseware.
Another thing to keep in mind is, far from enhancing the students, the wrong usage of all these technologies will actually dumb down the students. It’s actually counter productive to make a difficult concept into simplistic flash/movie files that the students can absorb without much thought. Learning will NOT take place. Questioning must be incorporated.
Aspects StpmWiki is to Recreate
- Using links and <hide></hide> tags, we can recreate most of the interactivity found in those coursewares, the most important aspect being organization of content and also questioning. Of course, it won’t really look as fancy, nor would it have voice overs, but those are superficial things after all. As for moving diagrams, external programs would need to be used, but embedding (or at least linking/uploading here after that shouldn’t be a problem).
Aspects StpmWiki is to Improve
- By using a website, we get rid of compatibility/storage problems
- By using wiki software, changes can be made easily and immediately available to all
- By incorporating interactive properties into lessons, rather than incorporate content into the interactive media, we are still putting emphasize on the content and are less likely to go astray
Drawbacks of StpmWiki to be Minimized
- Using a website however brings the problem of connectivity. It is now possible to download the contents to a computer, but it involves some manual work by content creators to edit it for offline viewing as well as package it into convenient download-able files.
Putting it all together
In conclusion, given enough effort and time, very useful content can be created here in StpmWiki. Best of all, it can incorporate the best aspects of various study experience to provide a high quality, seamless experience right here at StpmWiki.
That said, being a website limits its portability in certain ways. Various methods would need to be deployed accordingly.
