Wikipedia
ACTIVITY:
Your students are completing a community project where they are asked to solve a community problem by presenting their idea to the city town council.
You are considering ways that students can document evidence of their learning and thinking so that others can see the process behind their project . Your school district has an ePortfolio software tool, but the students want to share their learning with the public.
Questions:
- Search for your town/city/community on Wikipedia. What kinds of Wikipedia pages are already created about your town/city/community? What about your school?
- What information could you check for accuracy? Add to? How could you add to Wikipedia - WHY would you want to add to Wikipedia?
Editing Wikipedia
“Don’t cite Wikipedia, write Wikipedia.” - Ewan McAndrew
Editing and writing Wikipedia articles are powerful ways for educators and students to share scholarly knowledge in an authentic and public way, and to develop information and digital literacy skills.
- Wikipedia in the classroom: Developing information literacy, online citizenship and digital research skills (Ewan McAndrew, 2017)
- Teach With Wikipedia
- Writing Wikipedia articles teaches information literacy skills (LiAnna Davis, 2017)
The following resources from the Wikimedian in Residence project at the University of Edinburgh provide further information and tools:
- Getting started with Wikipedia
- Using Wikipedia in the classroom (case studies)
- Student testimonials (short video)
- Testimonial from an academic (Michael Seery, 2017)
Here is a link from a previous workshop on editing Wikipedia at NUI Galway;