Athens Present and Past

Since this was both a writing course and a seminar-style course, the course had two different objectives which were challenging to reconcile. A seminar implies collaboration among students, whereas we are accustomed to think of writing as a highly individual and personal activity.
I met this challenge by using the Wiki tool in Sakai in a creative way. For each assignment, I divided the students into groups, and set up a Wiki page in which each student could find their group listed, as a clickable link. Once the student clicked on his/her group's name on the Wiki page, he/she would be taken to his/her group's page on the Wiki. On that group page, he/she would find her name listed, along with that of her group members. Clicking on his/her name would take him/her to his/her own page, where he/she would write her essay or abstract. His/her group members, as well as the instructor, would then be able to leave feedback on that page, in the form of comments on the writing.
This preserved the emphasis on writing as an intensely personal and individual activity, undertaken alone and in privacy, but also enabled collaboration by creating the opportunity for members of one's small-group to comment and provide feedback in an interactive way. The great advantage to this was that all the commenters, as well as the instructor, were able to read each other's comments.
I also made use of the Wiki tool in a creative way to satisfy an administrative need of the class: reserving appointment slots to meet with the instructor. This led to optimal utilization of office hours, by allowing students to enter their names, via Sakai's wiki tool, for open time slots. This eliminated the need for going back-and-forth by email trying to set up appointments.