LetterSentToPrinciples

From WikEd

Ms. Kathy Alexis (address deleted)

Ms. Cyd Crue (address deleted)

Ms. Linda Lawrence (address deleted)

Mr. Wayne Crue (address deleted)

Mr. Lee Roberts (address deleted)

January 25, 2001

Dear ****

I write to inform you that I have recently retold the story of Wayne Crue's experiences in the Champaign public schools. I have used information found in three newspaper articles; one from the News Gazette, the Chicago Tribune, and The Octopus to prime the retelling of this story. In addition, I have included information from a few newspaper columns and letters during the spring semester, 2001.

The forum that I used to retell this story is a “wiki-format�? website. A wiki-format website enables any audience to read the information and to EDIT it. I am using this technique because it enables us to democratically collect community knowledge. Thus, if you feel that you were misrepresented in the original telling of the story, or in my retelling, you have the opportunity, if not the responsibility, to edit the website and ensure that your spin is recorded. For example, two of the three articles referred to earlier reported that Ms. Alexis refused to comment about her role in the Wayne Crue scenario. Well, I can understand why Ms. Alexis might be guarded about telling her story without much assurance of its accuracy when it shows up in print. A wiki-format takes care of this potential flaw in communication by allowing anyone to contribute a particular spin, even after it goes into “print�?.

You can find and read the website about Wayne's scenario at this URL: http://moodle.ed.uiuc.edu/wiked/index.php/Only_Wayne

You can edit the website by clicking the appropriate EDIT icon and working with the few simple editing procedures. However, before you can edit, you must Login - a process that allows the audience to know who the editors are.

If you have any technical problems with the wiki-format, contact me and I will have a technical problem solver deal with it. However, if you have questions about or reactions to the content in the website, please express them in the body of the website. Furthermore, if you relate information to me via email about the website content, I will simply transfer it to the website and respond to you in that forum.

I trust that you will welcome this opportunity to contribute to the telling of this story because I suspect each of you has unique, previously untold information that needs to be reported.

Truly yours,

Thomas H. Anderson Professor