In this segment of Ask a Researcher, I have a short dialogue with a fellow education researcher, Vance Martin, a post-doc at U. of Illinois. Vance has a chapter forthcoming in an edited volume about using wikis in a social studies methods class (and his dissertation on the optic is freely available: Using Wikis to Experience History). His experience with wikis appears to be at odds with the general patterns that I found in my research (as I reported in Will Free Benefit the Rich?), and I explain a bit about how I think my "30,000 ft view" of education technology patterns can inform design research studies, like those that teachers conduct in their own classrooms.
Justin,
Hi, my name is Vance Martin, I'm a post-doc at the University of Illinois. I received my PhD last year at the U of I, and my dissertation was on using wikis in my own classroom. I have taught history for the last 11 years, but at the college/community college level. I was very interested in your scenarios of edtech innovation, and will be interested to read the Ed Researcher article. I took a look at your quality instrument and don't doubt your findings, but they do run counter to my own experiences, so I was emailing to simply discuss/get your thoughts. At a community college we have a different group of students who would not often fit into the affluent category. And if I were to categorize outcomes of my own students they would usually fall into your category 1. I've found that marginalized or less affluent students are usually the ones who prefer using wikis and creating their own information. Any affluent students I have will often muddle by in a project and score well, but don't get the project or feel enfranchised. My project has usually been an ongoing textbook that all students add to, and what they research they also teach their classmates. And so more affluent white students, don't get often get why we should include other views. Within the last year I've been teaching students at the U of I (senior social studies pre service candidates). Most of them would be classified as affluent, and they do not see the value of a wiki, other than for use similar to dropbox. Just wondering your thoughts if there is something about the different ages of the students? Perhaps it has to do with individual pedagogy and use of wikis as a particular project? Granted most of my experience has not dealt with k-12 settings, and if my current students are an example I'm not exactly sure how they'd use any social media in a classroom setting.
Vance
Hi Vance,
I think your reflections are exactly what I hoped my research can provoke.
All I can do with my data, is tell you what I know about a sample of wikis that I am certain is representative of publicly-viewable, education-related PBworks wikis used in identifiable U.S. K-12 settings and that I strongly believe to be representative of U.S., K-12 wiki usage generally. The patterns in my data suggest that wikis are used more persistently and for more higher-order skill development in affluent schools. My own experience in visiting schools is that far more opportunities are available for using social media in wealthier schools and in higher academic tracks. I also think that most wiki opportunities in most places are not particularly rich.
It sounds like my findings, in someways run counter to your experience, which means that your experience may be of particular interest. Maybe the patterns that hold for K-12 wikis don't hold in higher education settings? Maybe there is something particular about how you are facilitating these learning experiences, or something particular about the kinds of students from marginalized backgrounds who persist into tertiary education? I'm not sure that I have enough of a sense of who your students are, what your courses are like, what previous experiences students have, and what projects you conduct with them to make an informed judgment or even a wild guess about what explains the patterns that you identify. But hopefully, what my research can offer is a larger landscape of what wiki usage in U.S., K-12 settings looks like, which hopefully can provide context as you conduct your own action research (formally or the kind that every teacher does through teaching) about the possibilities of using wikis and other social tools in your classroom. I don't think I have any good answers to your questions, but I'm excited if my research played a role in helping provoke those questions.