Wrangling Wikipedia

Editor's Notes

• #3: Press F5 or enter presentation mode to view the poll\r\nIn an emergency during your presentation, if the poll isn't showing, navigate to this link in your web browser:\r\nhttp://www.polleverywhere.com/multiple_choice_polls/MTk0OTk4OTc1NwIf you like, you can use this slide as a template for your own voting slides. You might use a slide like this if you feel your audience would benefit from the picture showing a text message on a phone.
• #6: The Five Pillars of Wikipedia are the foundations upon which the editing community is built. “It incorporates elements of general and specialized encyclopedias, almanacs, and gazetteers. Wikipedia is not a soapbox, an advertising platform, a vanity press, an experiment in anarchy or democracy, an indiscriminate collection of information, or a web directory. It is not a dictionary, a newspaper, or a collection of source documents; that kind of content should be contributed instead to the Wikimedia sister projects.Written from a neutral POV: Wiki strives to be free of biases within the entries. Entries suspected of bias can be marked for removal.Free to edit, etc: Be mindful of copyright and plagiarism. Likewise, anything contributed to Wikipedia will be shared, redistributed, etc. No firm rules: Reflection of Wikimedia as an organization which tries to remain relevant and current and respond to changes in thought.
• #10: In this section, we will give an overview of the Wikimedia projects and ways in which they can be used as a research tool for class assignments or as part of a semester-long class project. There are many more projects under the Wikimedia umbrella, but we think that these four projects will be of most use to students and instructors.
• #11: Wikidata is the newest Wikimedia project which began in October 2012. This project was unveiled at the Wikimania conference. Wikidata.org Still a work in progress. It’s important for students to be aware of copyright issues and limitations surrounding images. It can be difficult to find good quality images that can be used for educational purposes or altered. Wikimedia Commons images are free to use and distribute within reason. The images are licensed under the Creative Commons. Each image file contains information about licensing and attribution.
• #12: Wikipedia—Most of us are probably already familiar with Wikipedia. Although anyone can edit it, fewer people actually do so. There are over 18 million registered accounts on the English Wikipedia, but only a small number actively contribute. About 40% are from the U.S.: Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Wikipedia#Users_and_editors. An article published in the WSJ in November 2009 reports that Wikipedia actually LOST over 49,000 editors. Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125893981183759969.htmlWikisource: Good alternative for students working with primary documents or with older texts. Similar to Project Gutenberg.
• #15: Using Wikipedia to gather ideas for research topics offers an alternative to the oh-so-common “controversial issues” or “daily life in Ancient wherever” topics that are usually assigned to students. Students can discover a topic of interest to them and use the Wikipedia article’s references as a way to find more background information on a particular subject. The portals offer a way to find a group of related articles on Wikipedia. For example, the WWI portal serves as a nexus to information about the First World War on Wikipedia. Using the WWI portal, students can learn information that may not have been covered in class (such as the Finnish Civil War [1918]). If students are studying WWI and want to contribute to an article, the portal has a section that lists articles that need to be created, articles that need to be expanded upon or cleaned up, etc. Students can browse the talk pages on an article to see the issues surrounding the creation of an article, such as verifying sources and accuracy. Wikipedia does not have to be a passive, one-dimensional experience.
• #16: Critical thinking and information literacy skills also important when examining Wikipedia articles. Students should learn how to look at Wiki through the eyes of a researcher. Consider whether the article is “good enough” to be included in a print encyclopedia? Is there any information missing from the article? What could make it better? Strengths and weaknesses? Are the sources credible? Why or why not?
• #17: https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Education_Program.Program began in the U.S. in 2010 and is currently being run in four countries. Use to students: 93% of students found the ambassadors helpful and 72% of students preferred the Wikipedia assignment over a regular paper. Wikipedia was used in over 55 courses in the Spring 2012 semester. Valuable in that students see the real-world impact of their academic work. Example. Students at Georgetown and Cairo University collaborating on Wiki edits for mass communication program. Example. Psych 111 students at Concordia spent a semester creating and expanding on psychology Wikipedia articles. (Conclusion of these experiments)
• #18: Wikipedia is written in an encyclopedic style, which means that the articles have to follow a certain stylistic convention. This is helpful in distinguishing between academic writing, encyclopedic writing, and more casual forms of writing. Instructors and librarians often stress the necessity of avoiding plagiarism by properly documenting and citing all sources used within a paper. With wiki, students see a real-world example of why citing sources is important. Unsourced that aren’t properly cited are subject to removal. We can liken this to cases in which a story is retracted because some information within the story is unverifiable (case in point, This American Life’s retraction of “Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory.”). Basically, it’s important to be able to back up one’s information with verifiable sources and Wikipedia is a good way for students to see how this works.
• #19: ITESM—CCM student groups translated and created articles from English to Spanish and vice-versa. Oftentimes, information found in a Wikipedia article in another language may not be available for the same article written in English and vice-versa. http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printemps_arabeLe « Printempsarabe » est un ensemble de contestations populaires, d'ampleur et d'intensitétrès variables, qui se produisentdans de nombreux pays du monde arabe à partir de décembre 2010. L'expression de « Printempsarabe » fait référence au « Printemps des peuples » de 1848 auquelil a étécomparé. Cesmouvementsrévolutionnaires nationaux1 sontaussiqualifiés de révolutionsarabes, de révoltesarabesou encore de « réveil arabe2 ».http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_SpringThe Arab Spring (Arabic: الثوراتالعربية‎, al-Thawrāt al-ʻArabiyyah) is a revolutionary wave of demonstrations, protests, and wars occurring in the Arab world that began on 18 December 2010.Main difference between these two opening paragraphs is that the French Wiki article mentions the etymology of the term “Arab Spring” from the beginning and draws a connection to the revolutionary uprisings that occurred throughout multiple countries in Europe in 1848. This information isn’t included until later in the English language article. Also, the French Wiki article does not include the Arabic translation of the term. If a student were doing a compare/contrast on these articles, he or she might explore the reasons why the articles differ.
• #20: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printemps_arabeLe « Printempsarabe » est un ensemble de contestations populaires, d'ampleur et d'intensitétrès variables, qui se produisentdans de nombreux pays du monde arabe à partir de décembre 2010. L'expression de « Printempsarabe » fait référence au « Printemps des peuples » de 1848 auquelil a étécomparé. Cesmouvementsrévolutionnaires nationaux1 sontaussiqualifiés de révolutionsarabes, de révoltesarabesou encore de « réveil arabe2 ».http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_SpringThe Arab Spring (Arabic: الثوراتالعربية‎, al-Thawrāt al-ʻArabiyyah) is a revolutionary wave of demonstrations, protests, and wars occurring in the Arab world that began on 18 December 2010.Main difference between these two opening paragraphs is that the French Wiki article mentions the etymology of the term “Arab Spring” from the beginning and draws a connection to the revolutionary uprisings that occurred throughout multiple countries in Europe in 1848. This information isn’t included until later in the English language article. Also, the French Wiki article does not include the Arabic translation of the term. If a student were doing a compare/contrast on these articles, he or she might explore the reasons why the articles differ.
• #21: Instead of banning Wikipedia from classrooms, we can use Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects to as a way teach the skills that we want students to be equipped with by the time they leave NOVA. Students can participate and enhance their experience of Wikipedia. I’m sure some tie could be made to the original Encyclopedie, which was itself a collaborative project!