Coffee is an essential part of a million morning rituals every day. For millions of bathrobe-clad and bed-headed people, coffee is a cup of pure vitality. But there’s a dark side to the dark liquid. For those who experience anxiety symptoms, coffee can encourage the onset of panic attacks. It’s a fascinating and little-discussed side … Continued
The Wiki Education Foundation is a wholly independent non-profit organization. Donations off banners at the top of Wikipedia articles don’t go to us (only donations at wikiedu.org/donate do). We don’t charge our program participants for our services (although support is always appreciated!). Instead, we rely on your enthusiasm to help us grow. We know time is a … Continued
Wikipedia has about 4,668 articles it considers to be “highest quality.” Of these, only 12 relate to languages or linguistics. That means that many linguists, theorists, and theories aren’t well-documented on Wikipedia, and may even be missing completely. Likewise, many dialects and languages have articles that could be improved. That’s part of what drove Wiki … Continued
Highlights Wiki Ed welcomed Dr. Zachary McDowell as its Student Learning Outcomes Research Fellow. Zach has already started his work, engaging with instructors in various academic fields to create criteria for his research into learning outcomes from Wikipedia assignments. Wiki Ed staff attended the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) and the Allied Genetics conference, … Continued
University undergraduates may be tech-savvy, but that doesn’t always mean they’re digitally literate. It’s easy to mistake frequent use of new media for an understanding of media literacy. But that’s a bit like saying you can learn Japanese just by showing up in Tokyo. Like any form of literacy, understanding media requires not just exposure, … Continued
The Wikipedia Year of Science has had a significant impact on Wikipedia’s coverage of STEM fields. But we’ve also seen significant improvements of articles in political science. One of the best examples comes from Columbia University’s Order and Violence course, led by Dr. Christopher Blattman. The Arab Spring was a series of revolutionary protests across … Continued
Wiki Ed staff travel around the United States and Canada to present our model to universities, colleges, and academic conferences. Time and time again, we’re asked: “You know Wikipedia isn’t a reliable source, right?” That’s perhaps the biggest misunderstanding about Wikipedia assignments. Nobody should cite Wikipedia in an academic paper. Our approach to Wikipedia is … Continued
If you teach with Wikipedia once, you’ll want to do it again. At least, that’s the case for respondents of our Spring 2016 end-of-term survey. We ask instructors in our programs for feedback at the end of every term. Every time, we hear that the majority want to teach with us again, and this term … Continued
Ecology focuses on the relationships between the living creatures in an ecosystem, so it makes sense to think about ecology on a local scale. Ecology topics within Canada got a boost on Wikipedia thanks to University of British Columbia students in Dr. Rosie Redfield’s Human Ecology course. In that course, students created a variety of … Continued
