Facebook announced a new policy last week banning “deepfakes”, or digitally altered videos, from its platform. Not surprisingly, thousands turned to the Wikipedia page about deepfakes to understand more. Thanks to University of Southern California students from Helen Choi’s course last fall, the page provides some helpful context. In the last few years, the world’s … Continued
Our favorite (and also busiest!) time of the fall term has rolled around again. During these last few weeks before the holidays, students move all their final edits live, resulting in thousands of words added to Wikipedia overnight! It’s fascinating to see the breadth and depth of interesting new content that suddenly appears. As instructors … Continued
Information Services and Instruction Librarian Melissa Kahili-Heede and Dr. Richard Kasuya led their students at the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in a Wikipedia writing assignment last term that changed the way they worked with both students and faculty. This was the second time they’ve had medical … Continued
As is often the case when teaching with Wikipedia, Dr. Heather Sharkey adapted her original vision of a Wikipedia writing assignment based on what inspired students about the task. The result is a great story of collaboration, archiving of local history, and pride. Dr. Sharkey conducted her first Wikipedia writing assignment using our resources and … Continued
“It feels really powerful to have a forum to reach this many people and to provide them with potentially helpful information. I certainly don’t reach this many people during direct patient care or through publications in medical journals.” Everyone uses Wikipedia. Even our doctors.¹ So doesn’t it make sense to invite medical professionals into … Continued
“I started to see each Wikipedia page as less of a monolith and more as a creative, patchwork monster that perhaps hundreds of people were working on.” In an inter-institutional training course with the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries (referred to henceforth as “the Alliance”), librarians have had the opportunity to collaborate closely with peers … Continued
“Our patients are using Wikipedia for their health questions, so the more health professionals we have editing, the better and safer information they get.”* What would the world look like if everyone had unfettered access to knowledge? Free knowledge resources like Wikipedia provide an opportunity to put power into the hands of everyone. The Society … Continued
From the very beginning, we’ve had our champions — students, faculty, and institutions alike — who have recognized what a Wikipedia writing assignment can achieve for student learning and for the world. Thanks to word-of-mouth, as well as the great work these individuals have accomplished using our resources (work that speaks for itself), more and … Continued
What if students could help raise the visibility of artists of color across decades through a single assignment? In the case of Dr. Nicole Strathman’s students at UCLA, learning how to write Wikipedia biographies for Latina artists is accomplishing just that. “In exploring the diverse artistic contributions, interventions, and aesthetic experiments by women in Latin … Continued
