# Social and Cultural Foundations of American Education/Development Process

**The WikiText Development Process in ECI301 at Old Dominion
University** Darden College of Education, Fall 2006/Spring 2007/Summer
2007/Fall 2007

This WikiText, The Social and Cultural Foundations of Education, is the
combined effort of a dedicated group of professional collaborators,
faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students. The course was planned
over the summer of 2006 by Dr. Patrick O'Shea, Adjunct Faculty Member,
who had the original idea for a WikiText, Dwight W. Allen, Eminent
Scholar of Educational Reform, Peter Baker, Coordinating Graduate
Assistant for ECI301 where the WikiText has been developed and used, and
Douglas Allen, Associate Professor of Human Resources Development at the
University of Denver.

In the fall they were joined by two other senior researchers, Kevin
DePew, Assistant Professor of English, and Danny Curry-Corcoran,
Director of Evaluation for the Newport News Public Schools.

The senior research team also offered an applied research course in the
fall semester, paralleling the development of the WikiText. The major
objective of this course was to plan a series of research initiatives to
study the outcomes of this unprecedented, innovative approach to the
introduction of students to the profession of teaching. Preparation of
the WikiText and the evaluation of learning associated with that text
comprised about one half of the total introductory course which also
includes traditional lectures, both online and in a face to face format.
The course materials and syllabus can be found at:
<http://www.odu.edu/educ/dwallen/classallen.htm>.

Though the idea of WikiTexts is new, others have developed texts with
the cooperation of students, often though not always graduate students.
(See, for example, the developing student-written text about
educational psychology, as well as the
online Wikibooks version called *Contemporary Educational
Psychology*). We
decided to take a very different approach taking advantage of the large
numbers of students enrolled (about 225) in this introductory class.
First of all students were asked to produce a relatively brief (1,000
words) and very narrowly focused article on one of about 75 topics
selected by the professional staff as representing a "typical" mix of
topics for comparable courses. With about 225 students in the class, we
created a "sign up page" in the WikiText which allowed as many as three
students to sign up for each topic. In most cases we had two or three
student-authored versions of each article.

It was not expected that they would "cover" the topic, but rather would
select two to five major concepts they felt would be of value to them as
teachers in training. Students were also required to write five multiple
choice questions, applying the concepts their article to real life
situations, and one essay question. In addition they were asked to find
a "sidebar" something that would make the article more interesting -- a
quote, a video clip, an illustration or cartoon, a chart or graph.

The "book" was written during the first four weeks of class, and the
balance of the semester was spent reading the text they had written.
Each student was assigned to read and rate only one version of each
article, about ten topics each week. Typically we received about 50
ratings of each article. The highest rated article by students was
selected as the "official text." The other articles, some of which were
also highly rated are shown as supplementary materials.

