This week, Wiki Education staff will attend the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
In 2016, we attended the meeting in Washington, D.C., where we met dozens of scientists across disciplines. Their enthusiasm for sharing knowledge with the public was clear. Wikipedia has a far reach to non-scientists, and some attendees told us improving its quality should be part of the 21st century job description for anyone who intends to inform the public.
In Wiki Education’s Classroom Program, university instructors assign students to write Wikipedia articles. In place of a traditional writing assignment, students research course-related topics that are missing or underrepresented, and they synthesize the available literature to share through Wikipedia. After supporting thousands of students, we’ve proven this model brings high-quality academic information to wide audiences. Along the way, students hone their communication skills, learn how to discern between reliable and unreliable sources, and help combat fake news on the internet.
If you’re attending the meeting in Boston, you’ll find Director of Programs LiAnna Davis and Wikipedia Content Expert Ian Ramjohn in the exhibit hall. They’ll showcase student work in the sciences, give a tour of Wiki Education’s suite of tools for running a Wikipedia assignment, and can discuss how writing Wikipedia can help achieve your student learning objectives.
On Saturday, February 18, LiAnna will join Greg Boustead of the Simons Foundation and Dario Taraborelli of the Wikimedia Foundation to dive deeper into how Wikipedia connects scientists and the public. Join their talk from 12:00–1:00pm in Room 207 of the Hynes Convention Center.
Also on Saturday, Cornell University instructors Mark A. Sarvary, Ashley Downs, and Kelee Pacion will be presenting a poster from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm on their experiences teaching with Wikipedia through our program.
If you’re not attending the conference but would like to join our programs to help the public access reliable information, email us at contact@wikiedu.org.
