From Public Pedagogy to Critical Digital PraxisLearning/Writing as Reflective Action

Matthew VetterVisiting Assistant Professor of EnglishOhio University ZanesvilleSection Editor, Kairos vetter@ohio.edu

Campus Visit Job Talk – University of Texas at El Paso – January 27, 2016

The Arc of My Research

Wikis and Wikipedia for teaching writing theory A public and interactive pedagogy for teaching writing

The politics of the interface Representation and access in Wikipedia

Edit the gender gap: critical digital praxis in Wikipedia A case study

Future directions for critical digital praxis

Wikipedia and Writing Knowledge

Procedural knowledge – “History” pages Social knowledge – “Talk” pages Rhetorical Knowledge – “an understanding of a

rhetorical, constructivist model of knowledge production and the role of personal subjectivity in that process”

Rhetorical Knowledge

“I guess in some ways that’s what surprised me the most throughout this project: the revelation that I personally had contributed a legitimate article and added to the knowledge on Wikipedia. Also though, it did make me realize that many of the articles I had read and fully trusted over the years may have been put together by people that didn’t know what they were doing any more than I did at that moment. It was something to think about for sure.”

-student process log

Community-Engaged Learning

civic or community engagement (Herzberg; Weisser) go beyond homogenous cultures of university (Deans) increased levels of motivation and responsibility (Adler-

Kassner, Crooks, and Watters; Feldman

Representation and Access in Wikipedia

The free encyclopedia anyone can edit has so far been mostly edited by Western males.

Problems of representation and access prevent the community from achieving its enlightenment goal of “gathering the sum of all human knowledge.”

The Gender Gap

The Gender Gap is caused primarily by the fact that 1/10 editors are women.

This translates into uneven representation of articles on topics that might matter more to women readers.

But it also means that women’s perspectives are missing from all kinds of content.

We’re not building a truly multicultural encyclopedia that represents diverse views if our editorship is so homogenous.

Edit the Gender GapCritical Digital Praxis in Wikipedia

A Case Study

The Gender Gap Critical digital praxis The context of the course and how we engaged with

Wikipedia and digital culture in general The particulars of the assignment: how it was framed and

what we accomplished Theoretical speculation on how Wikipedia’s

epistemological practices make it susceptible to existing social hierarchies

Critical Digital Praxis

A model for making writing interventions in public digital cultures in order to both better understand the writing activities of those cultures and make meaningful impressions with/in them. Freire: “reflection and action directed at the structures to be

transformed”

In Wikipedia, this means tackling gaps in content and spreading awareness of systemic problems of representation

Initiate and participate in public conversations about why we need to intervene

Addressing the Gender Gap in Wikipedia

From the Assignment Sheet:

“In this project, you’re going to contribute to Wikipedia by performing research on a topic related to gender, women’s studies, women’s representation, or an lgbtq issue, identifying a need for a new article or edits to an existing article, and then contributing content to the encyclopedia based on your research.”

Assignment Motivations

Theoretical questions: Why the gender gap manifests? What caused or causes

the gap? How does the gender gap influence content and

representation?

Practical work Let’s improve representation by working on content. Let’s diversify editor base by becoming editors (at least

for the course of the academic term).

Components and Process Proposal - details “gaps” or

omissions in coverage

Annotated Bibliography – source information and source material on targeted topic

Article draft for peer review and Content Expert Review– posted in Sandbox

Final article edits – Mainspace edits

Training Modules

Explore Wikiprojects

Sandbox set up / Practice

Workshop Proposals

Research

Annotated Bibliographies due

Draft articles in Sandbox

Peer & Wiki Ed Content Expert Review

Revise and Publish

Student Work Some examples of Wikipedia articles edited or created by students

What We Accomplished: In numbers

A three-course collaboration, 54 students edited 61 articles and created 12 new ones on a diversity of topics. Combined, students in these three courses made a total of 1,361 individual edits.

Building and Sustaining Relationships in Digital Rhetoric/Education Spaces

The Gender Gap and Wikipedia Epistemology Verifiability ensures that Wikipedia will typically

represent the dominant texts, sources, authorities in our culture Those that are mainstream, published and most readily

available If we accept that we live in a culture that already

marginalizes women and lgbtq identities, we can also expect Wikipedia to reflect those social hierarchies

Wikipedia as a mirror of existing social hierarchies This is a systemic rather than deliberate bias.

Academic Interventions

Collaborations between Wiki Ed and Digital Humanities demonstrate how we can address these biases. By working to enlarge representation and diversifying

editorial populations Beginning conversations among academics, Wikipedia

communities, and the general public And by giving students opportunities to engage in public

writing projects

Digital Humanities & Public Culture

Students immersed in the culture and production of knowledge in Wikipedia can become “generative producers and critical consumers of cultural products” and can learn to make “meaningful interventions in the world and lasting connections between their humanist training and public engagement” (Melanie Kill).

Future Questions and Directions

Articulating and defining a theory of critical digital praxis for rhetoric and composition

Locating a historical and disciplinary lineage for such a theory

Further application of critical digital praxis to other digital communities and new media interfaces

Additional study of the pedagogical benefits of praxis Encourage emphasis on writing as action

Questions / Discussion

Appendices- Extra Material

Qualitative Research Methodology

“Classroom Studies” Descriptive in nature Multi-source collection

Surveys, reflective essays, process logs, article drafts

Situated in classroom practice Meant to follow and enrich writing practices and

assignments of students

Digital/Cultural Rhetoric

“The use of rhetorical methods for uncovering and interrogating ideologies and cultural formation in digital works” (Eyman, 2015)

Wiki Ed’s GoalsTo meet the goal of representing ‘the sum of all human knowledge,’ Wikipedia needs to grow. Wikipedia writing assignments can help…While we’ve seen great contributions to Wikipedia content tackling gaps in gender, race, and class, there’s still a lot of work to do to diversify Wikipedia. Wiki Ed is dedicated to improving and expanding Wikipedia through quality contributions that bridge content gaps. We believe student editors are a natural ally. (Salvaggio, “Introducing Wiki Ed”)

The Politics of the Interface

We begin the task of describing some of the political and ideological boundary lands associated with computer interfaces that we—and many other teachers of composition–-now use in our classrooms.

— Cynthia and Richard Selfe, 1994

Technology, like rhetoric, can both push and pull at us. Not only do 'artifacts have politics,' as Langdon Winner has claimed, they also have rhetorics. Technology pushes or manipulates us by requiring us to do certain things and in certain ways…. A technology pulls from us, or panders to us, by reconfirming and strengthening our inclinations and propensities.

— Carolyn Miller, 2013

About the CourseEnglish 3060j, Women Writing in Digital SpacesInstitutional Context, Course Theme and Design

“This course will explore the ways in which new media and digital geographies both open up new possibilities and create new challenges for women in digital spaces. “