SPARKING Innovation in Education

Heard from those quiet girls

lately?Derrick Willard

Providence Day SchoolCharlotte, NC

?

Where is this going?

• Background• Why a wiki?• Power Law (and the Long Tail)• Serendipity• Action Research needed?

Background

Powerful Learning Practice

Choices, Choices…

Image by Flickr user: dkuropatwa

Shirky says…

• Promise• Tool• Bargain

Wiki!

The Power Law

The Long Tail

The Long Tail

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

“The Long Tail or long tail refers to the statistical property that a larger share of population rests within the tail of a probability distribution than observed under a 'normal' or Gaussian distribution.”

Say What?

The Power Law

The Long Tail

My Results

Serendipity?

• 30 total participants• 19 Girls• 11 Boys• Who’s in the Long Tail?• Who did more work

beyond the minimum?• Who contributed more

to discussions?

Say What?

Conclusions1. Even if minimums are established for participation, student

efforts on a collaborative project will fall out according to the Power Law.

2. There is no clear evidence that participation in a one-week wiki "study group" will boost exam performance.

3. The majority of students reacted positively to this use of a wiki.

4. Some students, are more engaged, but not necessarily the students that have the most room for improvement. Females seem to thrive in this collaborative environment?

5. Data management tools within the wiki make it easy to quantify student participation and "drill down" to assess the quality of that participation.

Say What?

More Research Needed?

Girls who are in the long tail for amount of classroom participation are not in the long tail for wiki participation… – Verifiable?– If so, why?

This is the 19th slide.

Questions?Come to my session tomorrow:

Tearing Down Walls: Extending the Science Classroom

Derrick Willard; Providence Day School