Collaborating with the library to increase women on Wikipedia
Tamar Carroll teaches in the Department of History at Rochester Institute of Technology. She’s incorporated Wikipedia editing in several courses. Several years ago, I was inspired to assign a research assignment in which students either write a new or substantially edit an existing Wikipedia entry on a notable American woman, after reading about other instructors’ experiences … Continued
Roundup: National Hispanic Heritage Month
September 15 marks the beginning of National Hispanic Heritage Month, an annual event that celebrates not only the contributions of Hispanic and Latinx Americans, but also the histories and cultures of them and their ancestors from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. This observance lasts until the 15th of the following month and … Continued
Closing the knowledge gap about political science
Earlier this month, Wiki Education joined political scientists at the American Political Science Association’s (APSA) annual meeting here in San Francisco. Outreach Manager Samantha Weald and I spent the week discussing the massive gap between what experts know and what the public understands about political science. So many experts research important, interesting topics about governments and political … Continued
Chapter in the history of racism in America added by a Visiting Scholar
In 1843, an African American pioneer, James D. Saules, gained ownership of a farm in Oregon. The previous owner had employed a Wasco man named Cockstock, to whom he promised a horse as payment. When Saules refused to honor the previous owner’s agreement, Cockstock took the horse and threatened the farmers. Saules complained to local … Continued
From the librarian perspective: A relationship with Wikipedia as an education tool
Kelee Pacion is the Instruction Coordinator for the Albert R. Mann Library at Cornell University. In this post, she talks about the impact courses she’s taught with Wikipedia have had on her students. My interest in Wikipedia really stems from a love/hate relationship I used to have for the platform. I always found the notion of … Continued
Roundup: African Archaeology
For all of his swagger and bravado, Indiana Jones makes a terrible archaeologist. With all due apologies to Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg, Indiana was always slightly more interested in the treasure and his fetching female companions than he was with the “who, what, when, where, how, and why” of the historical sites he visited … Continued
Communicating American cultures with dynamic student projects
Since we started working with UC Berkeley students and instructors in 2010, they’ve added more than 1 million words to Wikipedia. From updating the article about carbon capture and storage in Mexico to creating a new article about lesbian bars, Berkeley students have been behind the helm. As a graduate of UC Berkeley myself, I know that they … Continued
Engaging students in interdisciplinary science communication
George Waldbusser is Associate Professor of Ocean Ecology and Biogeochemistry at Oregon State University. He’s integrated Wikipedia editing into his Biogeochemical Earth class several times. When the email first appeared in my inbox with the title ‘Teaching with Wikipedia!’, I vacillated between, “that sounds really interesting” to “what kind of email spam is this?” Fortunately, I trusted … Continued
Roundup: Budding Linguaphiles
Latin may be the language of love, but Ethnologue says that there are more than 7,000 living languages in the world today. This left students with Andrew Nevins’s Introduction to Linguistics class at Harvard Summer School much to choose from for their Wikipedia coursework. Together his class edited 38 articles, with some students becoming so taken with Wikipedia that … Continued
So long and thanks for all the poutine!
This year’s Wikimania conference in Montréal was — for me — the most intense yet. I discovered many years ago — after showing up to a few New York City Wikipedia meetups — that Wikimedians are my tribe. We’re nerds; we’re weird; some of us just can’t resist arguing about copyright for hours. Our community … Continued