Vance S. Martin, PhDUniversity of Illinois

• Reich, Murnane, and Willett (2012)– Sampled wikis in K-12 education– Wikis created in schools serving high-income families provide more opportunities for 21st century skills vs those of less affluent families• 50% one-time use in less affluent, 30% in more affluent

• 15% intermediate use in less affluent, 35% in more affluent

– Characterized as Attewells’s (2001) second digital divide of usage

• Constructivist ala Vygotsky (1978)• Apprenticeship or LPP ala Lave and Wenger (1991)

• Constructionism ala Papert and Harel (1991)

• Mixing media ala Lessig (2004)• Crowd sourcing knowledge ala Benkler (2007)

• Democratic learning – critiquing democracy while pursuing its intended goals including issues of race, gender, national identity, and subjectivity (Giroux, 2000 ; Noffke, 2000)

US and Western history classes taught at a midwestern community college

20 students per class on average 18-50 yr old students Just over 50% male Majority white, African-American and Latino

Half from local area, half from nearby major metro area

Students sign up for one of fifteen chapters

Over fifteen weeks they research material for the chapter

They teach their week to the class They also add content to an ongoing course wiki

The “teacher” acts as a student, or fills in for sick students

Instructor reflections and observations

Wiki Interviews Classroom artifacts Coding based on◦ Findings over time◦ Research from literature

• Initially students negotiated work on wiki, later in the classroom

• My practice changed through reflection of– Learning theories– Open source movement– Classroom observations

• Using a wiki allows for endless amounts of text, pictures, video, and permutations of these. They can be edited by an entire class at any point in the day. This by its very nature takes the control away from the instructor and places it with the class.

• Minority students found a voice they could add, felt empowered, relevancy of the information

• Majority students did assignments, did not feel it was important

• Numbers from chapter 3– Cycle 1 - 2 pictures, 5786 words– Cycle 2 – 3 pictures, 13,346 words– Cycle 3 – 3 pictures, 1 video, 14023 words

• Change towards democratic education• Students learned to critically think about racial, religious, gender, and economic divides while working on digital and global divides

• Trust is key– To action research• That reporting of what occurred will be accurate and considerate of those with whom you worked

– To democratic education• Students must trust it’s safe to extend themselves, teach the class, add material, and that the instructor won’t allow for mis-information

As we prepare for the future digital age, democratic education will become more important

Reich’s findings may be the current state, but it is possible to engage, over time, for equality