The ancient Middle East and the ethics of archaeology
Many of the advances that we enjoy and even take for granted nowadays have come from the Middle East. Love coffee? The earliest credible evidence of coffee drinking or knowledge shows that a monastery in Yemen during the 15th century enjoyed or knew about coffee. Have you performed in a marching band? The origins of … Continued
Academia is changing its mind about Wikipedia
“Most medical students use Wikipedia, yet most medical schools do not train students to improve Wikipedia or use it critically.” So begins the research study published by MedEdPublish this spring about the use of Wikipedia in medical education. The article ultimately encourages the implementation of Wikipedia writing assignments “across all health professional schools.” Attitudes toward … Continued
Ask Alice? Not about medical content!
Would you trust a university’s advice column to provide trustworthy medical content? Probably not. And while Wikipedia policies require high-quality sources for medical articles, the guidelines aren’t always followed, and there are too few volunteers editing medical topics to keep all such articles at a high standard. That’s why the article for the medical procedure tubal … Continued
An emerging movement of health professional students contributing to Wikipedia
Dr. Amin Azzam, MD, MA, Adjunct Professor at the UCSF School of Medicine shares how health professional students are improving Wikipedia as part of their formal curricula. Since 2013 I’ve had the great privilege of running a Wikipedia-editing elective course for fourth year medical students at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of … Continued
Early career scientists advancing the role of science in policy making
The 2020 election offers an opportunity for scientists to engage the public in thinking about how policy and science affect their daily lives. When voters search online to learn more about their candidates or ballot measures, they’ll inevitably end up reading about these topics on Wikipedia. 500 million readers come to Wikipedia each month to … Continued
Looking ahead: our plan for 2019-2020
We love to tell the stories of the thousands of students and hundreds of professionals making meaningful contributions to Wikipedia’s content through our programs every year. Those individuals make a big difference in spreading free, reliable knowledge globally. And we’re proud to share in their successes. Rarely, though, do we talk about the behind the … Continued
Creative thinking education for early career scientists
How did you learn to think creatively? Maybe creative thinking is a practice in which you’ve always excelled. You played an instrument as a child. A teacher commended you on your ability to draw or to write. Maybe you majored in studio art. So often, though, cultural narratives about “creativity” center upon a narrow definition … Continued
Engaging students with Wikipedia
Guest author Dr. Kathleen Sheppard is is an alumna of the History of Science Department at the University of Oklahoma and is now an associate professor of history and political science at Missouri Science & Technology. She was awarded 2019 Woman of the Year at MST “in recognition of her efforts to improve the campus environment for women … Continued
Curing academic writer’s block by editing Wikipedia
If you’re an academic experiencing writer’s block, never fear! Our Wikipedia writing courses give you tools to counteract two important types of block. The first is typical of many writing professions: having trouble putting something to paper. The second type is more unique to academia and has some dire, real-world consequences: difficulty explaining complex topics … Continued
Looking back to look ahead
Fiscal year 2018–19 has been a time of change for Wiki Education. After completing our year-long strategic planning process in June 2018, the organization started executing against its new three-year strategy. Overall, we’re extremely proud of what we’ve achieved only one year into carrying out this plan. We’ve laid the foundation for the work ahead of … Continued