As Wikipedia hits its 10th year of operation, it is making efforts to involve academics more closely in its process. The latest is a new plan to build an “open educational resource platform” that will gather tools about teaching with Wikipedia in the classroom.
Rodney Dunican, education programs manager for Wikimedia, Wikipedia’s parent company, is part of the team working to build the platform, which he said will highlight the ways in which Wikipedia can be used to improve student learning.
“We don’t want them to cite Wikipedia,” he said of students. “What we really want them to do is understand how to use and critically evaluate the articles on Wikipedia and then learn how to contribute to make those articles better.”
Mr. Dunican recently visited Louisiana State University, whose “communication across the curriculum” effort seeks to generate teaching tools and content, and then take those to professors in various disciplines who might be interested in using them.
“One of the things we are doing at LSU is looking at how we can institutionalize the curriculum around Wikipedia,” Mr. Dunican said.
For the 2010-11 academic year, Wikimedia also launched the national Public Policy Initiative to recruit professors who would like their students to add content to the anyone-can-edit encyclopedia as part of the curriculum.
The project focused on improving and increasing the content in the area of public policy and developing a model for using Wikipedia as a teaching tool.
“We have some very good results this last semester,” Mr. Dunican said. “We have shown that it is possible to include Wikipedia in the classroom to engage students in the learning process.”
Jeffrey Tang, an associate professor in the department of integrated science and technology at James Madison University, was one of the 12 professors from eight universities who worked with the initiative during the fall semester.
Mr. Tang was approached by Alex Stinson, a student at James Madison and a Wikipedia campus ambassador, to be part of the program. Mr. Tang and Mr. Stinson worked to identify Wikipedia entries with little information or new topics that could be addressed in class.
“It was exactly what I expected on some level,” Mr. Tang said about the results of the project. Some of the entries generated by his class were great, and others were not so great, he said, but all improved on the content that already existed.
“In general they liked the idea,” Mr. Tang said about his students. “Most of them thought it was neat that their work would actually be seen.”
17 Responses to As Wikipedia Turns 10, It Focuses on Ways to Improve Student Learning
jonawbrey - January 17, 2011 at 9:58 am
Wikipedia culture is fundamentally alien to critical thinking and reflective educational practice. If educators don’t start figuring this out pretty soon, we’re all in a lot of trouble.
Jon Awbrey, http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showforum=62
halavais - January 17, 2011 at 10:13 am
Jon: {{Citation needed}}
div411 - January 17, 2011 at 7:02 pm
How appropriate that Louisiana State University is using Wikipedia to teach its students to do research. The intellectual level of both faculty and students is exactly at the level of Wikipedia.
I taught there and was shocked to discover students who were barely literate and faculty who used “ain’t” to show off their knowledge of Latin. Wikipedia is for persons who are too lazy and too ignorant to do research.
DTR
jdxxxe - January 17, 2011 at 9:01 pm
As a person of the academic persuasion of some 40 years standing, I must say that I am more or less continually appalled by the casual snarkiness applied by many of my colleagues to knowledge resources like Wikipedia. I would really like to know where are all the Wikipedia articles embodying these creeping eldritch horrors from beyond the grave that seem to have so many equally eldritch academics so up in arms? The worst that I have usually seen in Wikipedia is incompleteness; granted, Wikipedia does not embody the entire intellectual content of the Bodleian Library, or even perhaps of its upstart cousin the Widener — but then, neither does the Keokuk Public Library, or even the University of Keokuk Library. Or is the objection based on ease of access? I can access its information without leaving my command chair ensconced in front of my multi-monitor infoconsole — perhaps I would be more worthy to access knowledge if I had to climb into a heavy overcoat and stagger through a few ten-foot snowdrifts to reach a drafty stone pile and paw through a moldy card catalog in the process? Obviously, I don’t want my students to write papers based solely on Wikipedia articles — but then, neither would I want them to write based solely on the collected oeuvre of the renowned Dr. Awbrey either. Personally, I find Wikipedia an unequaled resource as an entering wedge into new topics, as well as a useful summary and review of topics I may be well acquainted with but haven’t had time to have tea with lately. If someone doesn’t want to go into a topic in more depth than Wikipedia provides, fine — they probably don’t need to. And just because we believe that they would be Much Better People if they had to sweat a lot more to dig out nuggets of information, it seems decidedly unfair to deny them access to certain nuggets served up on a silver tray. Or is it that we really believe that the Unwashed Masses simply ought not to have access to any nuggets at all unless filtered through our finely honed judgments? I’d rather trust my intellectual hone to the collective powers of the Wikipedia community than to any Faculty Senate I’ve ever encountered — and that’s a lot of Faculty Senates!
g8briel - January 18, 2011 at 1:26 pm
Anyone who complains about Wikipedia as being alien to critical thinking has not bothered to think critically about Wikipedia themselves. It is _not_ like peer-reviewed journals. It is _not_ like print encyclopedias of old. I suggest you get over it and appreciate it for what it is. It is a great resource on some topics, a good starting point on others, incomplete on most, and miserable on some. Someone with reasonably well developed critical thinking skills is able to determine this when reading a Wikipedia entry.
jonawbrey - January 18, 2011 at 1:36 pm
Halavais, Jdxxxe, et al. –
Those of us who criticize Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation in the severest terms have arrived at our criticisms honestly, through extended participation and observation of Wikipedist Culture as it actually exists. Five years ago many of us were saying the same things you are now — “What’s the problem? I don’t see any un-fixable problems!” — but now we know better, all too sadly so.
Professional educators know that years of experience are not easy to convey in a blog box or a sound bite or two, so the best I can do in this space is refer you to The Wikipedia Review, where people of sadder but wiser experience — from the still cautiously optimistic to those of us who have abandoned all hope for Wikipedia — are permitted to do what they cannot do on Wikepedian grounds themselves, to speak freely, without fear of censorship or banning, about the reality of what they see, and where you can find all the horror stories or insights that you desire.
Not a Doctor, Just Twice a Master,
Jon Awbrey, http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showforum=62
rwentz12 - January 27, 2011 at 4:58 pm
I agree with the considered view of jdxxxe. If Wikipedia is used in a media literate way it’s an execellent resource. For more see
http://hslibrary.ucdenver.edu/handouts/class-handouts/wikipedia.pdf
written in 2007, but still valid in 2011, I believe.
RWentz12
prhelm1 - June 17, 2011 at 4:30 pm
I thought it was very kind of the Chronicle to print an infomercial for BVU! Good luck with your searches.
raza_khan - June 23, 2011 at 2:34 pm
Hi David
Having lived and worked in about 4 states in the last few 12 years, I am sorry to say…. but location is the #1, #2, and #3 and perhaps #4 too reason for absolute disqualification of a job opportunity. I in fact lived and worked in Nebraska… and moved as I found a job much more closer to my wife’s family. So yes, do expect that…. but of course…. there is always that hope… :)
best,
Raza
__________________________
Raza Khan, Ph.D.
Dr.Raza.Khan@gmail.com
mkt42 - July 14, 2011 at 5:01 pm
Whoever it is who owns the rights to re-runs of “That Girl” would seem to be missing the boat here; this book would be free advertising for the series. Even without a cable subscription, I can watch re-runs of “Mary Tyler Moore” and “Gidget” these days. A properly titled book could raise viewer interest in “That Girl”.
awegweiser - July 16, 2011 at 11:40 am
Pretty dumb reason for a law suit over a sit com that disappeared years ago. Has Ms
Thomas so much spare cash that she can pay avaricious lawyers to purse such silly things and take up a crowded court’s time? Instead give the money to one of her Dad’s marvelous causes instead of throwing it away on stupidity.
Sheri Garwood-Wilt - July 18, 2011 at 9:09 am
Hmm…I’ve never really been all that impressed with “That Girl” anyway!
photojeep - July 18, 2011 at 11:58 am
Dumb yes, but she does seem to have the law on her side. Marlo Thomas, like the rest of us, have the legal right to control our own image with regards to apparent commercial endorsements. I agree with the other posts that the positives would have far out-weighed any perceived ‘negatives’ but the law is the law.
Major_Ray - April 26, 2012 at 6:58 am
This really is not very strange if you know the state we
were in before we entered the matrix. We radiate energy fields in and around
ourselves. As long as science thinks it has all the answers to human origin and continues to ignore the synergistic and tripartite nature of man,
true wisdom will always be elusive.
Socratease2 - April 30, 2012 at 2:52 pm
Science is a method of observation and testing, it makes no sense to say “science thinks” anything because only people can think and science itself only supports what repeated empirical testing by people confirms. Science has no position on the existence or non-existence of the matrix. I, on the other hand, do have an opinion. What the hell are you talking about? Is this the Keanu Reeve’s matrix or something that might actually exist and can be tested by science? What tripartite nature of man? I’m afraid to ask but what the hell.
Major_Ray - April 30, 2012 at 5:55 pm
Socratease2
Scientists do think and we draw conclusions based on observations. However, my point is that since man is not just material, there are some realities that are beyond science. Spiritual discernment is no less true because science cannot measure it. I am a scientist and a theologian and I have yet to find any conflict between the two. The conflict is in the interpretation of observable data. It’s like being able to see beyond the veil while the people on the other side are calling you a liar. Accumulated knowledge does not translate into wisdom. Read Matt 24, Luke 21, and Mark 13 KJV. Also see John 3:16. I hope you find Jesus, brother.
Juan Galindo - May 5, 2012 at 2:45 am
What is science?
In essence, science is a perpetual search for an intelligent and integrated comprehension of the world we live in.
Cornelius Bernardus Van Neil (1897- ) U. S. microbiologist.
Dear colleaguas Congratulations.