The 90-9-1 Theory

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24 Responses to “The 90-9-1 Theory”

angw1068, on July 25th, 2008 at 9:24 pm Said:

My wiki idea is actually part of my final project which is a wiki site for all second grade classes at my new school. Although I will be the “wiki creator and champion” my hope is that my team will end up all contributing and editing the site. Next I hope to get parents on board and have parents in charge of editing certain pages and providing positive feedback to encourage that. With a lot of modeling and guidance I then hope to promote kids as part of the wiki community and provide incentives for them to also contribute to the space.

This is still a work in progress and after reading the 90-9-1 article it really made me think about how I will get everyone on board and not just have myself doing all of the editing. I really think once I show my team how easy editing is, how efficient and quick it is to get announcements it, how it saves time and paper, that everyone will climb on board.
Hopefully!
burnworthedu, on July 26th, 2008 at 9:08 am Said:

Your CompsWiki was a great idea. As technology progresses, more methods of managing a wiki become available. One of the first steps a wiki creator should do is to create and Overview Page and Seed the Pages with content.

The Overview Page gives the user an idea of what content exists and where they can contribute. I can highlight new submissions, provide support for how to edit the pages, and designate where content needs to be added.

Seeding the page with content, in the form of questions, outlines, and pages designated for specific content input helps the users feel more comfortable in adding their own information. Most users feel overwhelmed with the blank page, so providing spaces for them to add information would alleviate this problem.

The second step would be to invite others to contribute. This invitation should include brief training and specify what exactly is needed. It should encourage the community to create a 1-minute contribution. This will encourage contributions in small chunks and create a Critical Mass of users that will feel like part of a community.

Finally contributors need to be acknowledged to continue with their submissions. Using comments that compliment positive contributions to the wiki and BarnStars (a kind of wiki award) show the community members your appreciation for their additions.
martyjay75, on July 26th, 2008 at 9:40 am Said:

The wiki idea I have is inspired by Dan McDowell, our instructor for EDTEC 541 (or was it 540?). We both teach AP World History and I was intrigued by a wiki projects he has been doing with his classes over the past couple years. One of the major challenges in teaching AP World History is learning the so-called “AP World History Themes” and differentiating the changes in these themes for each of the five major time periods we study throughout the year.

I had been doing a PowerPoint Theme review project where students are assigned a theme, become the experts in that theme, and then create a PowerPoint to review that theme when we finish a given time period. When we go onto the next time period, I usually rotate the themes so that students have a little experience in being the expert in each them at least ones (5 themes, 5 time periods). I’m thinking that switching from a PowerPoint project to a wiki would be much more useful to students since the overall purpose of the project is to amass a database of knowledge that they can use as we approach the AP exam in May.

As the teacher, I of course would have to play the role of champion at first and maybe set up a template for each theme. Maybe provide the bare-bones essentials to give the students some structure and guidance so they aren’t intimidated by the “blank page” aspect as mentioned in the article. I would of course encourage them all to be major contributers as part of their grade for the project, but I really like the idea of creating a “stars of the wiki” profile to acknowledge the students who really go the extra mile.

The only danger I anticipate would be the potential for vandalism. The best remedy I can think of for this would be to only invite my students to contribute to the wiki and require registration to comment. I’m not sure if that would cover all my bases, but it would be a start. If the worst happens, it is my understanding that most of the damage done by would-be vandals can be undone relatively easily.
isurewould, on July 26th, 2008 at 10:03 am Said:

One idea I am kicking around is to create a wiki database and “share-point” for COMET projects. In different classes we have discussed getting hold of each other’s work and sharing it, but it only seems to happen when the instructor makes a webpage and links everyone’s projects to it.

This might possibly work if several conditions were met.

1st. I would have to be the wikichampion and be willing to do a great deal of the work. I would have to be willing to collect information and projects via email from those people who were unwilling to contribute their projects and time.

2nd. Call a barnraising session before or after our Adobe Connect sessions. Some people would be willing to put in another 15 minutes before or after class to work on a page that reflected on them positively.

3rd. Foster the wikignomes by praising those folks who are willing to help and offer up edits to the project. Perhaps offer up a symbolic “cometteer” award for putting in their extra time. This would be sort of like you see on sites like Flickr when a photographer is being praised for their fine photographs.

4th. Invitiations would definitely be needed to get some participation. It would be helpful to request very specific projects from each of the classes so wikians would know exactly what they were expected to contribute.

5th. It would be necessary to set up a structure ahead of time so that it was easy to post work up on the wiki. Perhaps this would involve creating pages for each of the different types of assignments. Then the page could be seeded with directions on what to do with the page.

I think this would work, and I actually am seriously considering putting this one into play for my project.
mamia, on July 26th, 2008 at 10:51 am Said:

So, for my Wiki I hope to create a space for my grade level to share lesson plans, strategies and resources but I know their is going to be a lot of Wikiphobia. The other 3 Kinder teachers are not tech savvy, as a matter of fact I think they are tech allergic so I am going to have to do a lot of planning to get everyone involved. I liked the idea of Welcoming. It seems easy enough to do and will provide a sense of community and ease the fear and perceived isolation of an online community.
Ken Callaway, on July 26th, 2008 at 1:59 pm Said:

Hey, I want to give a shout-out to all those wild, wonderful wikiless people that would rather be doing anything else than reading online ramblings such as this. The crazy folks that are too busy living their own lives to invest time in the thoughts and feelings of (hopefully) distant strangers. That unknown percentage of individuals who don’t fit into any part of the 90-9-1 Theory and find themselves perfectly happy.

That rant aside, I feel as though I’ve been sucked into WOW or some other online role playing game. Champions, trolls, vandals, gnomes, gardener(?)! What no wizards and elves?

The wiki I have created for my class is trying to incorporate some of the patterns listed. First of all, I am leaving the wiki completely open, making it easy for all my students to access. This leaves it open to vandals, but since many of my students don’t have email accounts and have limited access to computers, I wanted there to be as few walls as possible. There are some elements of barnraising involved, (and maybe some barn-burning as well). Since we are creating an online geography glossary , all of us need to contribute. There will be no champion; each person must contribute for the process to work.

In addition, there are elements of Starting Point. I want to use this to let the students know what a wiki is, and I am guiding what the content is. I need to find some ways to acknowledge goodness more, since many students need to be recognized for their work or attempts at work.

So far, the wiki has struggled in getting started. The biggest problem is that when students are adding their information, they have a tendency to destroy the work that was already there. Hopefully, we can get by this, but if not, I think it will still be worthwhile to expose them to this aspect of the web.
cassie5150, on July 26th, 2008 at 2:10 pm Said:

A wiki idea I have (possibly for the final project) involves the Diary of Anne Frank. As we read the play, students will be able to add on to the character descriptions in the wiki. There also could be sections for the acts, scenes and literary elements. This would be a great way for me to see what the students know about the play. This could also work with other readings, especially a novel where there are lots of characters and things going on. Parents could even contribute on a separate page. It would be a nice way for parents and kids to connect through classroom readings.
room207, on July 26th, 2008 at 2:15 pm Said:

I plan to use Wikis in several ways. I have actually incorporated a wiki into my WebQuest for EdTech 570. When students sign up for a project and an area of focus, they will sign up in a wiki (http://genocidesproject.wikispaces.com/soh_rodriguez). In addition, the groups will be collaborating on a wiki to write their report (http://genocidesproject.wikispaces.com/report). The goal is to have a high quality, researched article on the major genocides in the 20th century,

For this to work, i need to be the champion and guide the students at first. One advantage I have is that the 10th grade class I am doing this with is the same class I had last year in ninth grade. I know their personalities, habits, parents and I have a rapport with them. To avoid having vandals and copyright infringement when having a class wiki, the teacher really needs to set the tone in class by establishing a safe learning environment. In addition, if students know your discipline policy and know you mean business, but at the same time respect you because you have proven yourself as a someone who is there to help them grow, then you really reduce the number of inappropriate incidents.

With that said, I know 2 or 3 students will become the gnomes because they are perfectionists and like to see things done right. I do plan to have students register there email so that I can keep track of who does what. Everyone will be required to contribute, but I will be careful not to be the bully, but rather the champion.
denisekhenry, on July 26th, 2008 at 11:26 pm Said:

I teach math in a school where only one student in about 50 students passed the English portion of the exit exam last year. Contributing to a wiki could help develop written communication and math skills simultaneously.

Idea #1 – Generate pages that focus on the different uses of mathematics in every day life. Students learn to recognize how we all use math everyday, even mother nature. Sort of a marketing page for math.

Idea #2 – Create a bilingual k-12 math vocabulary site. We could share this wiki with schools that offer Spanish courses. The Spanish students could edit grammar, spelling, and syntax. The project could count as subject area credit work or toward community service hours.

My initial reaction to the participant descriptions is that I would have lots of vandals to keep an eye on through the receipt of notifications about revisions.

I’d have wikiphobics who would need the encouragement of scaffolds to get them started. Perhaps I could cultivate a few gnomes that could partner up with the phobics to offer encouragement and suggestions for contributions.

Trolls may be an issue as well, but students would be made aware of the tracking features which would deter the use of the wiki as a personal soapbox to lash out against our school and staff.

Thank you for sharing this site with us, Karl. It will be a good resource for my wiki project.
amyrauen, on July 28th, 2008 at 9:32 am Said:

I think your CompsWiki idea might have been more collaborative if you had tried the Barnraising pattern. That way, everyone would have set some time aside to help contribute. The Invitation pattern might have helped as well, for the same reason as the Barnraising. I guess a lot of people really need some kind of a push to contribute to a wiki, which either pattern would provide.
screllin, on July 28th, 2008 at 10:47 am Said:

I started this wiki: http://sdtrailrunning.wikispaces.com/ just for fun and to practice a little with a wiki about a hobby of mine. I started it when I still felt like I had some spare time, but lately I have been focusing on edtec projects for both classes. It is public, but I haven’t really told any of my trailrunning friends about it yet. I was thinking it would be better to put more content into it first, but now, after reading about some of those patterns, I’m thinking maybe using that barnraising technique would be a good one. If successful, that would get lots of content and ideas into the page more quickly and it would also get more collaborators right away. Since I didn’t actually do that, I’m thinking that using the Community Portal pattern would be a good idea. I can make it more clear on the home page that I encourage people to add and edit pages to the wiki and tell them how to do it. I also plan on using the Invitation pattern. I’ll send out invitations to join the wiki that include information on what the wiki is about, encouragement to make edits, and information on how to edit.
cwilsie, on July 28th, 2008 at 12:28 pm Said:

When we had the wiki comparison assignment, I set up two wikis so that I could see the differences. The first thing I did to both was have the main page explain what the wiki was for and I included the Commoncraft video, because it explains it so clearly. I knew the people I was inviting would not have any experience with wikis. So I think an overview page/wiki help center would improve usage. If I were to continue these wikis, a screen video of an actual edit/contribution on that particular wiki would be good as well – emphasizing editing as a way to contribute, not necessarily always creating. Another thing I did was set up a template for the kind of info/ideas we are looking for. Again, to encourage adding/editing — not starting out on a blank page.

Although I didn’t see it in the reading (sometimes I got lost in all the links to other things), I read in Amy’s and Matt’s comments about ” the barnraising pattern”. That sounds like a perfect way to create some ownership of the wiki, and thus getting more people to contribute. Positive feedback to contributors also seems to be a good strategy (and just good teaching).

I’m throwing around the idea of starting a wiki for my school site to use for PLCs — I know my principal will be starting these next year (I was on the trial PLC last year).
tbrent, on July 28th, 2008 at 7:12 pm Said:

My idea would be to have used “Intentional Error” to challenge people to work/edit the correct answers from their own notes into the wiki– who doesn’t like hunting down trouble? It would have been like a game, especially if you kept going in and tweaking the right answers!

Secondly, “Content Alert” would help visitors know that information is not stagnant and needs to be viewed/evaluated/edited.

Thirdly, I liked the idea of the “Threadmode”– if users felt they were involved in a discussion/interaction, they would connect in more.

These were the three most relevant and applicable!
mamim, on July 28th, 2008 at 9:09 pm Said:

A wiki idea I have is to create a wiki for my school. This is probably too ambitious, however as the champion i would work hard to equalize participation. The main thing I would have to do is make it easier to contribute. A blank page would be a turn off for most of the staff members at my school. Howvever I think with encouragement for editing I would have a lot of WikiGnomes. Of course I foresee a few Wikitroll’s, I can name one right now, but I’m hoping that the troll would be out numbered with WikiGnomes. I don’t doubt that there would be a lot of lurkers as well. That can’t be helped. What I don’t anticipate are Vandals. I don’t think anybody would want to risk their position as a respected teacher to shoot down and destroy a positive Wiki, but I could be wrong.
Anyhow, looking on the bright side, a wiki for the school would be great and I would try to maintain a great champion attitude!
ningrande, on July 29th, 2008 at 8:22 pm Said:

The Wiki idea that I am thinking about doing is a math glossary or toolkit for the students to contribute. For example, let’s say we are studying complementary and supplementary angles, students can contribute to what is are these two type of angles. They could come up with ways to remember the difference between the two like complementary angles make a corner so it starts with a “C” and supplementary angles make a straight line so it starts with an “S”.

To make your Comps Wiki work, you probably could have used the pattern of ASSESS WIKI ABILITY, where you could have made sure the people using the wiki understood the purpose of the wiki. You could have also rewarded the good contributors with positive feedback.
suhilives, on July 29th, 2008 at 10:57 pm Said:

Since I am already trying to implement a wiki in my class, I came up with two other ideas to help out some of my colleagues.
1) All this week I am at Pepperdine University with six students from my yearbook staff for a week long training. This being my sixth trip to the camp, I have heard my share of tips and tricks to help make this yearbook thing a little easier on advisors. Unfortunately every year we get more handouts and cd’s with PDF’s and PPT’s than I can handle. Then as soon as I get back to school, I forget to look at the darn things. Instead of wasting all that paper and adding more clutter to my collection, I would like to start a Wiki for all the advisors and presenters at the camp to share their knowledge, make it accesible, and keep it up to date. One of the directors at the camp is talking about starting an email list, but I don’t need any more random emails.

2) At our high school we are currently preparing for the WASC accreditation thing. I’m not to excited about it because it just means more meetings and more wasted paper that clutters my room. Creating a wiki would give the staff/group leaders a place to report their data without having to open>update>save>send spreadsheets and Word docs over and over again.

Of the two, the toughest one to get going would probably be the second one. To get this group going I would probably have to rely on barn raising to show them the basics. Finding gnomes to help out amongst the yearbook advisor’s shouldn’t be a problem once I get the ball rolling.
gjedtech, on July 29th, 2008 at 11:59 pm Said:

I think there are a few characteristics that I would like to see with any WIKI, and so I will suggest these for CompsWiki, Karl, as well as the WIKI that I may attempt within my district soon:

1: Seeding with content – yes, give the lurkers something to read from the get-go. Who knows, maybe sprinkling in a few typos here and there and some insignificant errors would encourage a lurker or two to begin contributing…..And this will give the Champions something to get started on right away (let the Gnomes clean up the rough edges.)

2: FAQ – I visit a few message boards (threads) regularly and even though I know a lot about the sites I visit, I still go to the FAQ pages once in awhile. Less so now than when I was new to the site, but everybody new has questions that they might not feel comfortable asking themselves. Anticipate their reservations by providing answers to questions that the probably have.

3: Threadmode – As I stated already, I am a message board (thread) kind of guy. I know sometimes these can get out of hand and sometimes downright nasty between users, but a moderator/admin can step in and shut down anything they find to be offensive – thus appearing to others as a Champion. It seems a WIKI could host a threadmode on other designated pages as a complement to the WIKI. A sort of sanctioned sidebar area or a ‘let’s take it outside’ place for issues/discussions.

All of the above, in my mind, cater to the people who aren’t regular contributors to the WIKI. And they will always be out there. The trick is to try to get them to ‘cross over’ to the contributing side each time they just try to lurk. The Champions and Gardeners/Gnomes will participate on their own (if they exist in the first place), but it takes some work to convert everyone else.

Also, giving stars and icons and titles to contributor’s avatars is a neat way to recognize regular participation. I even know of a site who gives credit for people not just participating in the online community, but they get recognized for providing ANSWERS and CORRECT INFORMATION to the sites as well. Interesting to me…..
imriek, on July 30th, 2008 at 10:05 am Said:

My Wiki Championship!

Since Wikis are a really new technology to me, I am going to rely on all the new information I gathered from the 90-9-1 wiki and the patterns site to make sure that my “job-alike, best practices” wiki flies.

The idea behind my wiki evolved from numerous discussions I have had with colleagues about “best practices” as related to various job descriptions in our district. I realized that we really need a clearinghouse of job-alike “best practice” ideas for each of our departments. If the wiki idea flies, then it would be great to offer the same solution to school sites by setting up a grade-alike wiki for teachers to collaborate sharing best practices for each of their grade levels.

I will need to be a champion, waving the banner and standing on my soapbox to make sure that all audiences understand the purpose and significance of the project. I would set up an introduction page to entice even the most reluctant user, explaining the concept and relaying the fact that their opinions are important. Editing support and online tutorials in the form of podcasts, in the form of professional development, would be available for use.

Next I would have a barn raising, being careful to “seed and fertilize” the page with engaging content that would entice even the most negative “wikitroll” or most reluctant “wikiphobic”. I would use email to send “ticklers” to remind users of the wiki’s existence and to highlight user posts on the page. And finally I would make sure that contributors are acknowledged for their ideas and rewarded for their time.

And finally, I love the idea of finding a “wikignome”, editor extraordinaire, to help me oversee the project.
Mrs. C, on July 30th, 2008 at 10:20 pm Said:

I am very interested in using a wiki to inform Girl Scouts about the different types of service projects they can earn (bronze, silver and gold). Girl Scouts are motivated by learning new things, so I think a wiki is perfect platform for them to share their ideas, get feedback about projects, and share resources with other Scouts. Ultimately, I would like them to have a page on the wiki that outlines their entire project.

What will motivate them? I thought of creating a patch or badge associated with having them post to the wiki. Girl Scouts love to earn badges, and there are a couple of websites that my own troops have used to earn a patch or badge. The projects these girls create are fantastic, and having a wiki where they can learn and share seems like a good idea. The projects they create are service learning projects, so the whole community can benefit from them.
kgranfield, on July 31st, 2008 at 8:19 pm Said:

I think the Compswiki was a great idea to start, and should have been great and a wealth of knowledge; in theory. However, with you championing the wiki, it seems (based on the little info. we were given) that it was a lot of contributions by you. This may have made it easier for others to not contribute, as much of the info. was already there.

I think going for the critical mass and utilizing exponential numbers to gain viral growth may have helped. Possibly if everyone entered a test question they thought might be on the test, with their answer? Then students could go to the wiki to enter their info. gain info. as helpful hints to other possible exam questions, and possibly correct or disagree with answers given to the questions in the wiki.
mrpayne, on July 31st, 2008 at 10:00 pm Said:

I teach in a private Christian school and on of the subject field is religion. With in the religion curriculum student are to memorize Bible passages and other doctrinal writings. Some students have difficulty with memorization and organizing time to study and put the work into practice. My idea has evolved from the problem. I am thinking about setting up Wikiverse site in which students would unscramble verses. I would also add a discussion strand were students would respond to their thoughts and ideas.
hbeezley, on July 31st, 2008 at 10:37 pm Said:

Okay. First I have to comment on Ken’s post. Ken, you always have me in stitches! I wish there was a wizard or warlock personality with wikis. They would be the people who magically fix the content destroyed by vandals or smooth over the dispute ignited by trolls.

My wiki idea…I think I’ve settled on using a wiki as the main organizational thread for a week of professional development at the end of the summer for middle school science teachers. The idea is that the wiki would not only be an agenda for the week with related resources for each day and session, but would also be a place to collaborate, share ideas, and comment on sessions.

Here’s the plan so far: First day (after intro stuff) teachers would create a personal page to share their hall of fame of great stuff that they did with integrating technology in order to encourage higher order thinking in students. (Later people would peruse these pages looking for people to nominate for the awards that we are going to present in order to celebrate people’s accomplishments).

Also, each breakout session would have a page with the resources for the session and then teachers will either work together to edit a page that considers how the topic presented in the breakout could be helpful in bringing student thinking to a higher point on Bloom’s Taxonomy OR teachers will simply leave a comment to the page suggesting ideas they have.

Finally, since the focus of the week will be on how to use technology to get kids to think, or did I mention that already , there will be a page for each grade level to compose a running list of different strategies, ideas, etc. they have for particular lessons.
jennitopmiller, on August 2nd, 2008 at 11:16 am Said:

What a great site to establish for you and your classmates! We learn an abundance of theories, vocabulary and methods in all of our classes it would be very helpful for a review site similar to the one you set up. The 90-9-1 is an interesting fact, with so many sites and information I think it is sometimes daunting for someone who does not know much about wikis to contribute. Therefore I think the idea about creating templates and giving the users a starting ground instead of just a blank page is a great idea to get them involved in the editing and contribution of the wiki.
For me, I work best when I am given visual examples and then I feel more comfortable making my own based on what I have seen. For a lot of people I think the first step when contributing is hard but if you get them to do the first time they will see how easy it is and contribute more often, hopefully!
lnettels, on August 17th, 2008 at 4:47 pm Said:

I also think your Compswiki is a great idea. It’s so hard to keep track of all of the new sites or ideas that are shared as educators; a wiki is a great way to keep track of all of that information. In fact, I was just thinking that it would be interesting if I started a wiki for my school to allow all of the teachers to share their lesson plans.

Anyhoo, after looking through parts of the wikipatterns website, I think two adoption patterns would be beneficial to potential posters. One would be to offer a template for people to fill out. Unfortunately, people are lazy. If given a template to follow, it would take a lot of guesswork out for some people.

Another adoption pattern that may have led to more contributors would be the email to wiki pattern. I can see how some people might be turned off to the whole wiki/blog webpage, especially since these things are so foreign to many. If they could post to a wiki through email, it would make things that much easier for some people.

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