Wikipedia in the Classroom

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• on January 9, 2015
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This blog post by Stacy Zemke is reposted from it’s original home at OUOpenEd.  Stacy and I gave a presentation on incorporating Wikipedia into the classroom at the Teaching Scholar’s Initiative this past fall.

Wikipedia – what is it and why should I learn to love it?

• Wikipedia is an openly editable encyclopedia, based on the MediaWiki platform
• Wikis and Wikipedia are not the same thing, a wiki is a platform designed for quick editing by multiple users, Wikipedia is a specific implementation of a wiki.
• 82% of students use wikipedia for research, but most only as a starting point for projects.

So we know students are going to Wikipedia, it is time to learn to love it!

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Here are the links from the original post made for the OU TSI…..

This morning, John Stewart and I are giving a panel presentation at the OU Teaching Scholars Initiative.  We have pulled together a lot of links that we plan to share, and I though I would post them here as well.

General:

• Wikipedia:
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
• Wikipedia FAQ:
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:FAQ/Overview
• Educause – 7 Things you should know about wikis
  • https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eli7004.pdf
• Educause – 7 Things you should know about Wikipedia
  • https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7026.pdf
• Wikis in Plain English from Common Craft Video
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY
• Wikipedia, a Professor’s Best Friend – from the Chronicle of Higher Education
  • http://m.chronicle.com/article/Wikipedia-a-Professors-Best/149337/?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
• Academics Continue Flirting With a Former Foe: Wikipedia
  • http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/academics-continue-flirting-with-a-former-foe-wikipedia/53337
• Clint LaLonda on My first published Wikipedia article
  • http://clintlalonde.net/2014/06/15/my-first-published-wikipedia-article/

How to Wiki:

• Editing Wikipedia, a print guide for new contributors
  • https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/01/14/editing-wikipedia-print-guide-new-contributors/
• Wikipedia Education Program:
  • http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education
• Wikipedia Education program/Ambassadors
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Education_program/Ambassadors
• Wikipedia:School of Open course
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:School_of_Open_course – Learning_objectives_.26_evaluation
• Wikipedia: Help:Editing
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Editing

Writing in the Classroom

• A really good E-Book chapter on the Wikiblitz:
  • http://writinghistory.trincoll.edu/crowdsourcing/graham-2012-spring/
• Stewart’s Education Program: /History of Science from Antiquity to Newton (Fall 2013)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_Program:University_of_Oklahoma/History_of_Science_from_Antiquity_to_Newton_(Fall_2013)
• Women in Classics or archaeology Wikipedia editathon
  • https://donate.wikimedia.org.uk/civicrm/event/info%3Fid=116&reset
• Wikipedia:Meetup/Women in Science Edit-a-thon – Oklahoma
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Women_in_Science_Edit-a-thon_-_Oklahoma
• Hackpad for classes
  • Hakpad.com
  • https://hackpad.com/The-Scientific-Revolution-CSyvJLiKTil

How Wikipedia is used:

• Wikipedia article traffic report how many times a specific wikipedia article was viewed by month.
  • You can find similar information from Wikipedia.
• According to the Wikimedia Foundation use statistics, there are 8,547,297 page views per hour on the English Wikipedia site in October 2014.
• Wikipedia Statistics:
  • There are 4,688,324 Content pages in the English Wikipedia
    • German is #2, followed by French, Dutch, Italian…
  • 750,769,355 page edits
    • average of 21.62 edits per page
  • 23,657,648 registered users (English site)
    • 122,745 have edited something in the last 30 days
• Wikipedia is the #1 source on healthcare information for doctors
• Wikipedia articles are predominantly edited by men (9 out of 10)
  • MIT Technology Review has a good discussion of some of the editing issues.
  • the BBC spotlighted some WIkipedians in 2012, as did the Wall Street Journal in 2014
  • Wikipedia has an article on systemic bias in its own site.
• The majority of sources cited in Wikipedia english articles are from news magazines, with Books, Archives, Video and Government sites following.