Hi Jim, Thanks for the pointer to this research paper -- a solid piece of research.
It's an insightful read, most notably the significant increase in productivity and output using the group approach. mmm -- wondering how our community can leverage the advantages of the group approach? In Wikieducator -- the workgroup approach has achieved significant outputs in a relatively short time frame. At the same time, workgroups can contribute to burn-out and wiki stress. What can WikiEducator do to mitigate this challenge? I'm also thinking about ways in which we can learn from the Wikipedia experience. One of the challenges facing Wikimedia projects is supporting newbies who may not be familiar with the sophistication and complexity of all the polices and guidelines which support group work. Having a new page deleted within a few minutes because of non-adherence to a range of group related guidelines is not a positive experience ;-). I'd like to see WikiEducator develop and refine approaches to support and promote all members, irrespective of their experience of the peer-production model. It seems that the apprenticeship model, where we guide and support all members at their level of experience is a valuable and productive approach. WikiEducator is also very good at scaling professional development of its members --- Learning4Content being a prime example. Most of our training facilitators are "graduates" of the L4C initiative, which illustrates the scalability of our model. Thoughts? Next steps? Cheers Wayne 2009/11/3 Jim Tittsler <[email protected]> > > The recently concluded WikiSym (short for the International Symposium > on Wikis) has published a number of the academic papers presented. > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2009-11-02/Conference_report > > One that caught my eye was "Herding the Cats: The Influence of Groups > in Coordinating Peer Production?" I've been skeptical of the emphasis > on workgroups, but this paper makes a case for how joining a group can > affect behavior (and complement individual contributions). > http://www.wikisym.org/ws2009/procfiles/p107-kittur.pdf > > > > -- Wayne Mackintosh, Ph.D. Director, International Centre for Open Education, Otago Polytechnic, New Zealand. Board of Directors, OER Foundation. Founder and Community Council Member, Wikieducator, www.wikieducator.org Mobile +64 21 2436 380 Skype: WGMNZ1 Twitter: OERFoundation, Mackiwg --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
