History is one of the most popular disciplines for teaching with Wikipedia — but it’s also an area where students sometimes struggle. In history classes, students tend to do research, drawing conclusions from primary sources. But that’s not how history articles on Wikipedia are constructed as original research isn’t allowed on Wikipedia. Instead, student editors … Continued
Highlights Wiki Education staff members and board chair PJ Tabit traveled to Montreal, Canada, for Wikimania 2017, the annual gathering of Wikimedia editors from around the world. Several staff had presentations in the schedule, and we learned a lot from other program leaders and shared our learnings. We wrapped up our Google Summer of Code … Continued
It’s rare to see a student excited to discover an underdeveloped Wikipedia article — but this was the initial reaction of College of DuPage freshman Stephanie Lemm this spring, when she looked up the “Educational entertainment” article. That’s because it was a topic that interested her immensely, and her English professor, Dr. Timothy Henningsen, had assigned Stephanie and … Continued
Highlights Remote Wiki Education staff traveled to San Francisco to participate in a week-long All Staff meeting with local staff. It was a great opportunity for staff to collaborate in-person, since half of our staff is remote. We engaged in a lot of planning for how we will accomplish our goals for next fiscal year, … Continued
Highlights Wiki Education released the results of the Fall 2016 Student Learning Outcomes research. Among the more important findings, Wikipedia assignments give students digital literacy skills, and students are more motivated by a Wikipedia assignment than by a traditional assignment. The results are important to show the impact our program has on student learning. We thank … Continued
Wiki Education staff and Board Chair PJ Tabit are traveling to Montreal, Canada, this week to attend Wikimania, the annual gathering of editors of Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. Wikimania is a great opportunity for us to collaborate with our colleagues who work with Wikimedia projects globally — and, since Wikimania is in Montreal this year, … Continued
Last month, I was honored be part of the Contra Costa Community College District’s Civic Engagement Speaker Series, with the provocative title “Fake news: A threat to our society?” The event was moderated by Diablo Valley College Journalism Department Chair Mary Mazzoco. Joining me on the panel were East Bay Times education reporter Sam Richards, … Continued
In 2016, Wiki Education kicked off the largest targeted content initiative ever undertaken in the Wikimedia world: the Wikipedia Year of Science. When the year wrapped up in December, our programs for the initiative had added nearly 5 million words of content to the English Wikipedia. More than 6,300 students edited more than 5,700 articles on … Continued
At the end of April, Wiki Education staff traveled to Toronto, Canada, to participate in two conferences with open education themes: the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s Annual OER Meeting and the Creative Commons Global Summit. Both conferences confirmed the work Wiki Education is engaged in is crucial to the future of open education, especially … Continued
