Understanding and Transforming Online Collaboration Amy Bruckman Associate Professor

Great Uncle Oscar’s Wikipedia Page Oscar Brodney –Born February 18th, 1907 –Hollywood screenwriter –Nominated for an Oscar Screenplay for The Glenn Miller Story –Other credits: Harvey Tammy and the Bachelor Francis the Talking Mule Abbott & Costello’s Mexican Hayride Etc. –I have edited his Wikipedia page On my watchlist

Outline Constructionist learning Understanding Wikipedia –Interviews with: Regular contributors Administrators Leaders of Wikiprojects People banned from the site An educational application of this technology –Science Online Extending the paradigm –Leadership in online creative collaboration

Constructionist Learning Piaget’s constructivism Papert’s constructionism –Examples: LOGO LEGO Mindstorms StarLogo Scratch Designing construction kits –Personal connections –Epistemological connections

Constructionist Online Communities People creating something together online –Stricter sense: artifact –Looser sense: shared understanding Community provides both motivation and support: –Technical support –Emotional support –Role models –An appreciative audience

Understanding Wikipedia Have you edited Wikipedia? Do you have a watch list? “The problem with Wikipedia is that it only works in practice. In theory, it can never work.” (New York Times, 4/23/07)

What Makes Wikis Unique? Constructionist learning (Papert, Resnick) –Learning by working on personally meaningful projects –Learning through design and construction activities –Low barrier to entry –Easy learning curve –No ceiling Extremely light weight –Small differences in accessibility change user behavior Example: editing without logging in Collaboration on a large-scale

Becoming Wikipedian: Transformation of Participation Interviews with 21 “Wikipedians” Becoming a part of Wikipedia is a process of: –Legitimate peripheral participation (Lave & Wenger), in a –Knowledge-building community (Scardamalia & Bereiter) Andrea Forte, Susan Bryant et. al. (Group 2005)

Legitimate Peripheral Participation (LPP) Lave and Wenger (1991) –Example: tailors in West Africa –Start by sweeping floor Legitimate: floor needs to be swept Peripheral: watching activity around them –When someone finally says “sew this seam,” they’re ready Seen it over and over Real-world learning is often more like this than like school Cognitive apprenticeship –Use this approach for knowledge work –Need to make expert practice visible

Knowledge-Building Communities Sociology of science (Latour, Woolgar) –Community of scientists –Publish ideas –Review others’ ideas critically –“Truth” emerges from this social process Scardamalia and Bereiter –Could a knowledge-building community be used as a learning environment?

Becoming Wikipedian Typical progression: –Start with one edit –Get a watch list –Begin to care about the site as a whole LPP in a knowledge-building community

More Field Work Interview studies with: –Administrators NOT a free-for-all Complex processes support the evolution of policy Increasing decentralization –Leaders of Wikiprojects Allow local groups to establish editorial guidelines –Example: WikiProject Medicine »“Medical Collaboration of the Week” –Helping site to scale gracefully –People banned from the site Norms have evolved Artifacts play a role in community response to deviance –Example: ‘band’ speedy delete tag –Distributed cognition (see work by Ed Hutchinson)

Science Online: Motivation What if we created a version of Wikipedia written by high-school students? –Focus is on science PhD work of Andrea Forte

Wiki as a Construction Kit Constructing text is a powerful learning activity –Writing-to-learn We can design environments that support specific writing activities Design challenges –Support critical citation – media literacy skills –Make it fit in the classroom

Constructionist Learning at Work

Science Online Results: Affordances of Wikis for Learning Students perceive user-generated content as valuable –Feel a responsibility to their readership –This changes both their writing practices and their motivation to write well A real audience can bring about meta-cognitive engagement with content –Students reflect on what readers need to know Publishing model is incremental and transparent –Provides for the emergence of new collective writing practices by making the writing process visible –Supports cognitive apprenticeship

Collaborative Constructionism Constructionist learning can often be individualistic Truly collaborative projects are happening online –Example: Flash animations on newgrounds.com –How is this done? –Methods (Luther & Bruckman 2008): Screen scraping Interviews with 14 animators Three primary collaborative modes –Narrative –Continuation –Collection Different narrative structures lead to different work processes PhD work of Kurt Luther

Narrative: “Valentine ‘29” Linear Story Collab

Continuation: “Pass-my-Flash 2” Continuous Story Collab

Collection: “When Farm Animals Attack” Nonlinear Story Collab

Task Characteristics Development in parallel or series? Does the final product need all contributions, or can some be filtered? Is the project ever “finished”? –Animation has one final release version –Contrast to Wikipedia article (continuous release) or open source software (frequent release) Is the creative style conventional or innovative? –Convention supports shared expectations

Heavy Demands on Leaders Challenges: –Articulate vision –Recruit contributors –Give feedback –Justify decisions –Replace dropouts –Integrate final product –Etc.

New Suite of Tools: Sandbox Support existing practice –Reduce burden on leader Examples: –Claim system for available tasks –Automatic tracking of who contributed for credits Transform existing practices –Reduce role of leader –All tools have multiple settings Examples: –Task assignment »Centralized: Leader assigns task »Decentralized: Anyone can claim task –Task completion »Centralized: Leader decides »Decentralized: Members vote –Optional branching structure of final product

Conclusion: Designing for Collaboration An iterative process: –Understanding existing practices –Envisioning new possibilities Guided by values –Broad, diverse participation –Designing tools to support new practices

A Few Questions Is Wikipedia one of a kind? –What might another Wikipedia-style project in another domain look like? Will Internet technologies make possible new cultural forms? Will collaborative creation lead to a broad reconceptualization of the idea of an “author”?

More Questions What is the future relationship between professional and amateur media –In entertainment? –In education? –In journalism? –In other domains? What does “amateur” mean, and will this term change in meaning?

Acknowledgments Yochai & David ELC students: –Betsy DiSalvo, Andrea Forte, Kurt Luther, Sarita Yardi ELC sponsors: –IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Pitney Bowes, Ricoh –The National Science Foundation –US Department of Education For more info: –