The History of the Americas classes have recently stopped their use of wikis, a shared online studying tool, for their essential knowledge assessments, which has many frustrated. This frustration is ultimately because wikis were many people’s main form of study for the classes assessments. However, I don’t have a problem with the removal of these wikis from the class for a few reasons.
I feel like the reasoning for their removal was justified since many students would rely too much on the wikis when it came to studying. This would lead mean that they just memorized the wiki’s content instead of forming a strong understanding of how these topics connected as a whole, which is one of the major goals the classes try to achieve. I myself relied heavily on them and while I did pass the EKs, I did find myself struggling on the essays, which is where the connection of these topics is most important. According to Social Studies department chair Dean Wood, the first round of EKs since the switch have even come back with higher pass rates than before.
Another thing that came with the removal of wikis was the introduction of a graphic organizer that has been used in previous years but recently hasn’t been used in HOA classes. This graphic organizer is the what is supposed to replace the wikis and I think it does a good job in doing so. I found myself learning more by having to separate each section of the EK term since I would often miss either the context or significance of the terms by just going off the wikis. The wikis themselves would even be wrong on some occasions or just barely make the pass mark, which I think is also avoided with the switch to the graphic organizer.
Overall, I think that the change was a good move on the Social Studies department’s part with the wiki’s not allowing for a strong forming of the topics we need to know to pass the class. The reintroduction of the graphic organizers allows for a better alternative to the wikis that helps separate the key components of the EK terms. This helps remove the crutch that the wikis were for many and I think that will allow us to learn more from the class.
Additional viewpoint:
“The analogy I always use that we had kids who were learning the trees, that is each individual wiki, but didn’t understand the forest or big picture.” Social Studies Department Chair Dean Wood said.