Lazy Virtues: Teaching Writing in the Age of Wikipedia

by Robert E. Cummings

Using Wikipedia to understand and teach electronic collaboration in college writing

198 pages, ebook

First published December 15, 2008

Reviews

[Christian · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book's title could just as easily be "Teaching Writing in Wikipedia", although everything discussed can apply to any collaborative writing environment, specifically open systems that support "Commons-Based Peer Production" (CBPP). Cummings opens with an straightforward explanation of the ideas Yochai Benkler presented in his 2002 article, Coase's Penguin, or Linux and the Nature of the Firm , which popularized CBPP and posited a model of human behavior based on the economic theory of Ronald Coase. He also introduces the concept of "laziness" as applied to the hacker community's propensity to re-use prior work as a basis for new projects.

It all comes together, as the author works out the motivation and reasoning that can propel students to write for a public audience on a site like Wikipedia, where their contributions are small fragments of a larger oeuvre. His focus is on the freshman composition classroom, and he offers model assignments, case studies and explores approaches to assessment and analysis.

If you have ever considered incorporating Wikipedia authorship into a composition class (or any humanities class, conceivably), you ought to read this book. It'll save you a lot of time. For those exploring the use of more limited or closed wiki environments than the 800 pound gorilla of Wikipedia, you may find this less directly useful, but it contains good insights that can help your peer writing pedagogy.

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

"Ironically, operating systems have become so standardized that most computer users are scarcely aware of their existence"

Standardized means consensus. And while replacing a pedal on my bike requires the same tool for almost all makes of bikes, the same web browser has to have one team for each supported operating system and the features can differ in the sense that one system has it, another doesn't and the third will have it work differently. User awareness, on the other hand, has nothing to do with standardization, and has a lot with ergonomics.

Cummings is a veteran bureaucrat, specialized in make believe "I can train". He barely understands the tech side, being a mere ignorant user qualified to use a very user-friendly interface honed during many years of evolution. By the crafty and improper use of the words, I assume Cummings is one of the mass produced English majors trying to make a living in a hostile world.

[Usman Mughal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Its a good book, and it is telling about the latest and modern teaching techniques in this modern age, where everything is available at Wikipedia. Wiki is providing information about almost every topic, which is being searched these days. In this modern age, the book is telling about the great teaching techniques.

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