Scaffolding Participation
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The document discusses using Wikipedia in the classroom to have students participate in collaborative knowledge building by scaffolding their involvement in increasingly public spheres. Students would start by reading the Moby-Dick article to learn Wikipedia norms and history tracking. They would then analyze information, check facts, judge credibility by comparing other sources, and conduct research to evaluate gaps and the validity of their knowledge. Considering the value of potential contributions, students could then join the Moby-Dick community by using tools to add information such as noting Moby-Dick was selected as the state book of MA.
Scaffolding Participation
- 1. Joining the Collaborative knowledge-building space of wikisScaffolding participation in increasingly public spheres
- 2. Scaffolding participation across activitiesPosition Paper:Wikipedia in the classroom
- 3. Reading the Moby-Dick article
- 7. Analyzing informationChecking factsJudging credibility Reading & comparing information from other sourcesLooking for gapsProbing the information for what it doesnt sayConducting research (e.g., between what years did Melville write the book?)Evaluating validity of their knowledge (e.g., Wrath of Khan as an appropriation)Considering the value of potential contributions to the Moby-Dick community
- 10. Adding informationNoted that Moby-Dick was selected as the state book for MAAdded Wrath of Khan as an example of appropriating themes of Moby-Dick Added Moby Dick: Then and Now as an example of a contemporary remix
Editor's Notes
- Article tab: what most Wikipedia users read for information
- Discussion tab: Discussions of Moby-Dick fans/scholars/readers about whats in the article (and should or should not be and their rationale for why)
- Take a look at this discussion, for instance, about whether or not Moby-Dick should be hyphenated
- The History tab is another level, where users can see the changes that have been made to the Moby-Dick article.
- Students were reading through all this informationbut reading it consequentiallyreading it through a framework of thinking about what they might contribute to the article. So they were checking facts, looking for gaps, and evaluating the validity of their knowledgewould the contributions they were considering be useful? Redundant? Would they be deleted?
- Becoming a member of the Wikipedia community
- Using the tools: Mark, a proficient Wikipedia user, taught everyone how to use the Sandbox feature to practice editing.
- It should be noted that the Moby-Dick Wikipedia community is an active one; the article was a nominee for a Language and Literature good article award. Facts from the article have been featured on Wikipedias main page 7 times, over a 4-year span. The editing talk page is 76 kilobytes long. In other words, this is an active, established community who seem to care deeply about the content.