Reflection

__Kathryn__: When I learned of the wiki assignment’s requirement to take another’s work and change or improve upon it, I took a quick glance at our time period and immediately closed it out. In an attempt to remain impartial to the necessary information to be included, I began this assignment by researching on my own and collecting resources related to the progressive education era. Once I felt that I had a pretty good hold on the time period and its components, I began a new wiki to work from, again so that my ideas would not be limited by a previously existing template.

The original wiki appeared to have a somewhat narrow focus, relying heavily on the heavy influx of immigrants and America’s attempt to assimilate them. While a major influence of education, it should not be the sole focus when discussing the progressive era—an era full of philosophical conflicts within the field of education. Cohort two included wonderful pdf documents with which we were able to sometimes supplement our information, and many things we simply added to. For instance, we added an educator page, rather than a list from the homepage, which consists of a chart with educator overviews, documents, links, and pictures.

Jeff and I are both very independent workers, so we seemed to work well together. We divided the time period in half (Kathryn- 1900-1930; Jeff- 1931-1950). We both contributed to resources that applied to both, such as educators (Kathryn- Dewey, Kilpatrick; Jeff- Bobbitt, Tyler).

On a technological note, I found wikispaces very difficult to use. It appears user-friendly, but it is plagued with formatting issues. Often times, a font can be set as one size, but when it is previewed, it may be a completely different size. It also has a tendency to revert back the original formats when the page is edited. This would have been a very interesting and engaging project, if it had not been so difficult to work with. I believe that I have discovered why Cohort 2 used so many pdf files, instead of wiki pages.

With all honesty, I have to say that I did not relish in the idea of adding to another’s work, rather than beginning my own, but I do see the value in this assignment. If cohorts continue to add information to the wiki each year, what a fantastic resource it would be!

__Jeff:__ In the beginning, this assignment seemed to give me mixed feelings. Who am I to take another’s work and make it better? I initially opened the original wiki page and briefly scanned the information to get an idea of what the original authors had already found. Then I set off to explore the progressive era and to find the key components to tie the main ideas and philosophies of this important time period from both a historical and educational point of view. As I gathered information, I became more and more intrigued by the manner in which famous historical events influenced the direction of education.

Kathryn and I both agreed the original wiki was somewhat narrow and focused predominantly on Americanizing immigrants with little attention placed on the explosion of philosophical ideas and major influential events contributing to this significant era in educational history. Tonya and Keturah (Cohort Two) had some great information saved into pdf documents and linked to the original wiki pages which were supplemental to the information we had collected. It was just a matter of incorporating some of the original ideas and materials provided by Cohort Two and intertwine them with our new research and ideas. Some of the newest features of our wiki page is the organizational scheme for easy access to the information contained within, a historical timeline summarizing historical events and influences to education with supplemental image links and keyword links. Cohort Two had a great idea which we were able to take to the next level; originally a list of notable educators of the progressive era was listed on the wiki homepage. This was taken and made into a chart with overviews, documents, links, and images.

Kathryn and I were a great pairing since we are both very independent and hard working on any task we undertake. We found the easiest way to tackle this assignment was to divide-and-conquer so we divided the time period for the cumulative timeline of the progressive era time period. We both contributed to resources and various aspects of the new wiki content. Kathryn and I both have an appreciation for organization and neatness, which is very evident in the modifications to this wiki page.