Help Before July 1 Editing Short Paper Introducing Peeragogy Wikibook
Charles Danoff
Charlie
The Google Doc I sent last email has been updated with the version that's submitted, and it is also below. Thank you to co-authors!
Peeragogy Handbook Wikibook Edition Workshop
Collaboratively Improving Electronic Literature
Charles Jeffrey Danoff, Mr. Danoff’s Teaching Laboratory LLC
Mary Tedeschi, Pace University
Andrew Wilkinson, City Tech - New York City College of Technology
Sridevi Ayloo, City Tech - New York City College of Technology
Raymond S. Puzio, Hyperreal Enterprises Ltd
What is Peeragogy?
It is not linear; there is not a single definition.
It is not a word in the dictionary. It is not (yet) famous.
Music production is peeragogy.
The process of making music is peeragogy in working action. You have an artist write with the voice, writer with the words the voice will get, producer with the beat the voice is going to flow on, and everyone gets together and they produce a beautiful thing.
It can also happen in other forms, for example:
Study groups
Collaborative research teams
Project-based learning
Informal knowledge-sharing networks
Open online communities
Artists co-making a new electronic literary text
Or, in this case, we are peeragogically making a Wikibook together.
What is not peeragogy?
Someone standing at the front of the room instructing or commanding the others. That is pedagogy (ref), which is hierarchical and suitable in many contexts, such as learning introductory math. In a peeragogical context; however, new knowledge is often being co-created or defined, like mathematicians at the doctoral level finishing a fresh proof.
Who are Peeragogues?
People who participate in peeraogy are peeragogues. You can join us.
The term originated around 2012 with the publication of the first edition of the Peeragogy Handbook (ref). It has come to commonly be used by those volunteering in the peeragogy project (ref). We meet on Monday mornings to discuss what is happening in our lives and our own individual endeavors. Others may share their similar experiences, which can lead to exciting, unexpected cross pollinations. Sometimes we just chat, other times we also write papers, plan workshops, play games, make podcasts (ref), and have fun.
When does Peeragogy Happen?
It happens all the time and sometimes peers are not aware. It was happening in the DJs and emcees in 1970s New York City (ref) who collaborated to invent hip hop. It happened when humans came together to invent computers and the first software. It is happening now when new art forms are created and when students choose to meet at the library to study together.
We have developed peeragogy patterns that help us nurture collaborative environments (ref). One of them is the “hearbeat” that is essential for a project to continue. Our weekly meetings are our heartbeat. Not everyone can attend every time, but people show up to maintain momentum. There have been periods of time when we lost the rhythm, but luckily for us, we found it again. Sometimes peeragogical projects like a new free, open-source software app “die” when the original participants leave.
Patterns apply to other things in our lives like a drum circle. We are trying to collect our patterns in one place, maybe some of them are not new, but we are putting them in this context.
Where is Peeragogy Happening?
All over the world.
Face to face peeragogy has been happening since those people who first figured out how to tame fire thousands of years ago. They did not learn it in a university class.
For those who live in different locales, it has become easier with the invention of the internet. Of course, people collaborated across oceans before the digital age, it was just slower. One person could mail a draft of their writing to another, and wait days or weeks for the feedback to come.
Peeragogy is happening now in online communities, like the one for Open Educational Resources (OER). OER are learning objects that cost zero dollars and give people freedom to modify them, as specified in the copyright license. Instructors who choose OER can provide students free textbooks for classes..
The digital commons are another place peeragogy is happening. They are shared digital resources (e.g., software, knowledge, data, and cultural content) that are collectively produced and governed by a community and intended for public use. One example is the “The Academic Commons of The City University of New York is designed to support faculty initiatives and build community through the use(s) of technology in teaching and learning. The free exchange of knowledge among colleagues across the university is central to better educating the student body and expanding professional development opportunities for faculty research and teaching.” (ref)
How can you contribute to the Peeragogy Wikibook?
It is easy but you have to start.
Dozens of volunteers around the world made The first edition of Peeragogy Handbook first came out in 2012 (ref). It was a PDF, print book, Wikibook, and there was a website. We made a second edition in 2014 (ref) that was also available as a paperback and e-book in multiple formats. Two years later we made the third edition. They have been cited in academic papers and used by people in various contexts.
We intended to make a fourth edition (ref), but never finished. Instead, since then we have spent a lot of time writing papers, conducting workshops, and refining our understanding of peeragogy. In the last couple years instead of focusing on a small group of volunteers coming together to make a new book, we thought it would be a better idea to focus to draw on the Wikimedia community. It is much larger and Wikimedians already know how to collaborate collaboratively edit incredible knowledge resources like Wikipedia.
The first three editions of handbook were static. Yes, two of them were available on Wikibooks, but they had been ignored for years. However, due to the nature of mediawki software, it was easy to jump start them with fresh edits. Going forward we want the Peeragoy Handbook to be a living dynamic resource, editable by anyone anywhere in the world. It does not need fancy editions like print books. Every time someone makes an edit it is a new version and that is tracked. Accordingly the first two editions of the Handbook on Wikbooks were combined and now there is only one.
This workshop is an effort to bring in the electronic literature community and introduce them to Peeragogy, and to Wikibooks, for those who are not familiar. We hope it will be fun, first and foremost, and then secondly hopefully people will connect with the ideas of peeragogy, peer learning, and peer production to see ways i can help them in their own lives. Or maybe it’s not for them, and that’s okay. Ideally those who resonate with the idea will take a step further and then contribute back to the Wikibook.
The most recent update to the wiki book was from a volunteer who made reviewed edits others had made, and then prepared a clean PDF version of the wiki book itself. This is someone we have never met, but they found it and they had a Wikimedia background and then they made it better. This type of proactive editing by a stranger has not happened with the earlier, static editions.
Figure 1: Screenshot of the Peeragogy Handbook Wikibook from early July 2026
References
Works Cited and References in MLA Format using ELO-Paragraph Style
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pedagogy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip-hop
Berger, Monica. “Academic Librarians and Pedagogical Approaches to Deterring Predatory Publishing.” In Predatory Practices in Scholarly Publishing and Knowledge Sharing: Causes and Implications for Scholarship, edited by Pejman Habibie and Ismaeil Fazel, 1st ed. New York: Routledge, 2023. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003170723 + https://academicworks.cuny.edu/ny_pubs/1066/
Berger, Monica. “Bibliodiversity at the Centre: Decolonizing Open Access.” Development and Change 52, no. 2 (March 2021): dech.12634. https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12634 + https://academicworks.cuny.edu/ny_pubs/696/
Berger, Monica. “The Institutional Repository: A Place for Every Undergraduate Researcher’s Work.” Scholarship and Practice of Undergraduate Research 3, no. 3 (Spring 2020). https://doi.org/10.18833/spur/3/3/3 + https://academicworks.cuny.edu/ny_pubs/588/
Claude helped me with this revised reference list
Berger, Monica. "Academic Librarians and Pedagogical Approaches to Deterring Predatory Publishing." *Predatory Practices in Scholarly Publishing and Knowledge Sharing: Causes and Implications for Scholarship*, edited by Pejman Habibie and Ismaeil Fazel, 1st ed., Routledge, 2023. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003170723
Berger, Monica. "Bibliodiversity at the Centre: Decolonizing Open Access." *Development and Change*, vol. 52, no. 2, March 2021. https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12634
Berger, Monica. "The Institutional Repository: A Place for Every Undergraduate Researcher's Work." *Scholarship and Practice of Undergraduate Research*, vol. 3, no. 3, Spring 2020. https://doi.org/10.18833/spur/3/3/3
Corneli, Joseph, Charles Jeffrey Danoff, Charlotte Pierce, Paola Ricaurte, and Lisa Snow Macdonald. "Patterns of Peeragogy." *Proceedings of the 22nd Conference on Pattern Languages of Programs (PLoP '15)*, The Hillside Group, 2015, Article 29.
Danoff, Charles Jeffrey. "Contact Mr. Danoff's Teaching Laboratory." *Peeragogy Google Group*, 31 May 2021, https://groups.google.com/g/peeragogy/c/i5RVYjXLQGw/m/C1zcjHlqAQAJ
Danoff, Charles Jeffrey, et al. *The Peeragogy Handbook*. 2nd ed., 2014, https://mr.danoff.org/peeragogy-2.01-ebook.pdf
Electronic Literature Organization. "What Is Electronic Literature?" *Electronic Literature Organization*, https://eliterature.org/about/
Gillespie, William, Frank Marquardt, Scott Rettberg, and Dirk Stratton. *The Unknown*. 1998, https://unknownhypertext.com/
Hayles, N. Katherine. *Electronic Literature: New Horizons for the Literary*. U of Notre Dame P, 2008.
"Hip-Hop." *Wikipedia*, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip-hop
Merriam-Webster. "Pedagogy." *Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary*, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pedagogy
Peeragogy. *Peeragogy Handbook*, https://peeragogy.org/
Peeragogy. *PHVersion4-RAW*. *GitHub*, https://github.com/Peeragogy/PHVersion4-RAW
Peeragogy Labs. *Pattern: Heartbeat*, https://peeragogylabs.github.io/pattern-heartbeat.html
Peeragogy.org Editors and Howard Rheingold. *The Peeragogy Handbook*. 1st ed., Lulu, 2012, https://www.lulu.com/shop/peeragogyorg-editors-and-howard-rheingold/the-peeragogy-handbook/paperback/product-1k9kjw4w.html
Pierce Press. *Peeragogy Podcast*, https://piercepress.com/tag/peeragogy-podcast
Rettberg, Scott. *Electronic Literature*. Polity Press, 2018.
"The Academic Commons of The City University of New York." *CUNY Academic Commons*, https://commons.gc.cuny.edu/
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17 entries total. A few things to flag for your audit:
- **Corneli et al. 2015** — confirm ISBN 9781941652039 is correct for the proceedings volume
- **Gillespie et al.** — only add if you use it in the body text; currently not cited inline
- **Hayles and Rettberg** — same, only include if added to body text
- **Danoff et al. 2nd ed.** — confirm "et al." is appropriate or list all editors