[K12OSN] Wiki Experiment

[Krsnendu dasa]

Interesting experiment. Is there a link to the wiki?

On 03/12/06, Steven Santos <steven at simplycircus.com> wrote:
> I have just finished a small experiment with my schools internal circus arts
> wiki, and I thought I would share the results, as it may give a few of you
> some ideas (I hope it does!).  Please note that this is NOT a scientific
> experiment - my testing group was very small, I did not correct for almost
> any outside factors (of which there were many I should have corrected for!),
> and my test group were mostly over-achievers heavily involved in
> intermediate and advanced classes. YMMV.
>
> Like many, we use an array of private internal and public external email
> lists to facilitate the sharing of information.  Unfortunately, not nearly
> enough of this information makes its way to our internal wiki. So the
> question arises, what can we do to change this, without putting more stress
> on those who so often answer the questions?
>
> When looking at the list of subscribers for one specific list, we quickly
> realized that most of those subscribed to that list were students taking
> various classes.  So we asked the question: Could we make effective use of
> student time and energy to capture and organize mailing list information
> into a wiki in a way that is also beneficial to the student?
>
> To test this theory, we used 5 groups of students.  All students were given
> the same assignment, namely to document a list conversation as an
> encyclopedic article, following a specific format. In all cases students
> were allowed to ask questions to the list, and to there instructors. This
> assignment was part of the class grade for all students involved.
>
> Group 1 was our control group.  This group was not given any training or
> cueing.  These students signed up for lists that had no bearing on their
> personal interests (i.e. not related to any class they have ever taken, and
> having never expressed an interest in the subject). This group consisted of
> the following students:
>
>   5th grade girl
>   6th grade girl
>   7th grade boy *
>   9th grade girl
>  11th grade girl
>  Junior girl
>
>
> Group 2 was our middle school group with an interest in the subject area.
> The students in this group were given 45 minutes of training on what was
> expected, and how to document the conversations.   These students were also
> cued as to what conversations they should each document.  This group
> consisted of the following students:
>
>   7th grade girl
>   7th grade boy
>   7th grade girl *
>   8th grade girl
>
>
> Group 3 was our middle school group with no interest in the subject area.
> The students in this group were given 45 minutes of training on what was
> expected, and how to document the conversations. This group consisted of the
> following students:
>
>   7th grade girl
>   7th grade girl
>   8th grade girl
>   8th grade girl
>
> Group 4 was our high school group with an interest in the subject area.  The
> students in this group were given 45 minutes of training on what was
> expected, and how to document the conversations.  Some cueing was done to
> help specific students identify conversations to document. This group
> consisted of the following students:
>
>   9th grade girl
>   9th grade girl
>   9th grade boy
>  10th grade girl
>  11th grade girl
>
>
> Group 5 was our collage student group with an interest in the subject area.
> The students in this group were given 45 minutes of training on what was
> expected, and how to document the conversations. This group consisted of the
> following students:
>
>  Freshman boy
>  Sophomore girl
>  Junior girl
>  Junior girl
>  Senior girl
>
>
> Group 1 produced a total of 9 articles, with 5 of those articles deemed to
> be high quality documentation of the mailing list subjects.  4 of the
> articles (including 2 of those deemed to be high quality) came from one
> student, the 7th grade boy.  The other high quality articles were produced
> by the 11th grade girl and collage Junior girl of the group.
>
> Group 2 produced a total of 8 articles, with 3 of those articles deemed to
> be high quality documentation of the mailing list subjects. 4 of the
> articles (including 2 of those deemed to be high quality) came from one
> student, the 7th grade boy.  The other high quality article came from the
> 8th grade girl.
>
> Note: The two 7th grade students denoted with an * are in a journalism class
> together that requires them to document various TV NEWS interviews in a
> similar manner in a class wiki.  Each of these students produced 4 articles
> each, 2 each being high quality.
>
> Group 3 produced 4 articles, none of which were deemed to be high quality.
>
> Group 4 produced 6 articles, all of which were deemed to be high quality.
>
> Group 5 produced 5 articles, 4 of which were deemed to be high quality.
>
> Correcting for the students in that journalism class, our little experiment
> suggests that high school and collage age students can, with some training
> and support, be utilized in helping to document mailing list conversations
> to a wiki.
>
> The two 7th grade journalism students indicate that the more practice (and
> in-class time?) a student has with this process, the better they are able to
> document them.
>
> Of the 24 students used for this experiment, only 4 were boys.  This may
> well skew the results.
>
> Almost no in-class time was spent on this project.  More class time would
> likely be helpful.
>
> All students felt they got more out of this assignment than they would have
> just writing a paper.
>
> The more on-list questions a student asked, the more likely they would
> produce a high quality article on the subject.  Those that asked no
> questions almost always produced low quality articles (the 7th grade
> journalism students were the only exceptions to this).
>
> All students had to create original articles from the conversations.  We did
> not look at students expanding existing articles.
>
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Steven Santos
> Director, Simply Circus, Inc.
> Email: Steven at SimplyCircus.com
>  Mail: PO BOX 620753
>        Newton, MA 02462
> Phone: 781-799-4938
>  eFax: 309-214-0899
>   Web: www.SimplyCircus.com
>
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