Hi Karen - This is great insight. Thanks for sharing. Are these collegiate level students?
Best, Amy On Oct 8, 2011, at 1:50 PM, Karen Sue Rolph <[email protected]> wrote: > Report to Colleagues Interested in Gender and Culture in the Wikipedia > Classroom, > > It will be no surprise to you that getting used to Wikipedia contributing is > a process, and as far as I understand, this is a forum for tackling the > gender gap in particular. Our particular Ambassador program is working well, > the individuals involved are accessible, knowledgeable, and supportive. > Additionally, I've intervened on my students' behalves and generated a > message for another user when necessary, asked for tolerance, explained > learning circumstances. I always get positive responses from users who'd > challenged incompetent newbie contributors. > > As the real-time classroom leader or navigator, Wikipedia is fun because it > challenges learning paradigms, and must be engaging and "student-centered" at > the same time as we all discover together; for this reason, I 'brand' the > class as a workshop. A structure such as this, however, leads to > productivity and grading ambiguity- a greater and more complex issue than I > want to elaborate here. But for instance, I am "grading" contributions and > the mid-terms are group collaboration projects- there is some academic > frontier here. > > The class' students are a mix, both in gender and ethnicity, and > representative of the U.S. today. Some students first language is not > English. I loosely utilize Wikipedia's Educator materials. We are reading, > "Good Faith Collaboration..." as a basis for historical and societal > background about how Wikipedia has evolved, and we augment our understanding > with outside readings, sometimes from the news (WikiLeaks and Anonymous are > examples of topics that interest students). We have assigned grammar > captains (majors in relevant fields), PhotoShop captains (experience with > PS), and an HTML captain (writes code). Student-to-student participation in > the workshop is important, yet added to that, students today come to class > with mobiles, have Facebook, Twitter, and Google + at the ready. They > quickly learn that Wikipedia is social too. > > We listened to an interview of Sue G., that Sue had pasted the link in this > forum a few weeks back. I sought feedback, especially from females. Only a > few students commented, but generally I sensed a generation gap about the > significance of low female participation in Wikipedia. The most important > message I received from female students is this: Their parents have warned > them that the potential for danger lurks on the internet, and that open > disclosure of information on their identities, or even becoming a viewable > entity, such as a user, could put them at risk. I cannot emphasize enough, > how my students heed the cautionary advice of their elders. Students mention > concern that their true identities could become known, they express anxiety > about the potential for becoming targets of any kind of ire, including > slights that more mature adults have long since learned to live with. > Cyber-predation and identity theft come to mind. This gender forum too, is > published to the internet and names names... moreover, ones ideas here may be > batched with topics that one is disinclined to comment on in public fora. > > My students hesitate to voice their views in this forum; though I had wished > they would share them, I cannot ask students to do something they worry is > not in their best and safest interests. Some students complain that > 'gendergap' contains non-pertinent sends, some females agree a female-only > forum would feel safer; females are divided on this latter. One Latino male > said he quickly got bored with this forum, that people don't realize the > world of single mothers is devastated by exigencies far removed from > Wikipedia, especially for females of color. > > Males (Caucasian) in this class are more likely to make early contributions- > then get them dinged or deleted. This seems to be based on preliminary > self-confident behavior, but once chastised by Wikipedians for low > competence, they quickly become more hesitant to contribute. In > contributions by females, grammarian females show high confidence and > competence for ongoing contributions. Some females demonstrate surprisingly > high levels of self-uncertainty. For some, self-perceived as not certain, > passion for topic and zest for engagement may slightly mitigate low > contribution probabilities. To generalize for the purposes of this forum, > ethnically African American, Latino, and African males "behave" more like > females in terms of uncertainty and contribution engagement. > > Low social credibility, an outcome produced by new engagers' problematic > contributions, seems to be a cocktail of: contributor culture of origin, > natural inclination (for scholarly pursuits), social self-measure- > predicaments and constraints, gender-based sensitivity, and ability to roll > with the punches as a newcomer to knowledge-driven social fora. It should > not be surprising that many newcomers to Wikipedia, already in a sea of > social media, will opt for that Tweet about someone's idea, rather than dig > in, and do the dry and rigorous research required to construct a survivable > statement with references and links in Wikipedia. Young knowledge pursuers > want to own something and have safe places to do it. > > Overall, females want non-gendered usernames, they worry true identity data > "escapes" and IP data could make them vulnerable to mishaps. While all > students want to learn and make meaningful contributions, students see there > are problems with the importance of their contributions. Experience with > deletions and comments can help students rise to a higher level of > contribution, raise the bar on themselves, learn to navigate Wikipedia > culture, and grow into a sense of importance in the Wikipedia super- and > infrastructural (for lack of better terms) communities. > > I encourage all students to see themselves becoming those overseers and > caretakers of Wikipedia and its future. Empowerment starts at home (females > remind us), then is supported in the classroom (such as by a caring mentor). > Just as I had professors and others whose ideas have an enduring impact on my > intellectual and societal present, one tries, through the scholarly mission, > to inspire this new generation of eager, good-hearted, well-intentioned, > capable of excellence, set of newcomers. I don't have revolutionary ideas > (yet). But please, hang in there good people! > > KSR > > > _______________________________________________ > Gendergap mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap _______________________________________________ Gendergap mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap
