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
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
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
Japanese women change-makers of the 20th century
Want to learn about a prominent Japanese anarchist feminist at the turn of the century? Or Japan’s first woman journalist? How about an important activist in Japan’s 20th century women’s liberation movements, who was imprisoned repeatedly for her politics? Thanks to Dr. Elyssa Faison’s students at the University of Oklahoma, you can now read all … 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
Counteracting the gender gap in economics through Wikipedia
Not only do economic fields recruit too few women, but progress in engaging women in economic programs and careers has stalled in the United States in recent years. That’s a problem, but one that students at the University of British Columbia are helping solve. During spring 2019, Dr. Marina Adshade assigned students in her “Women in the … Continued
Unerasing Gert Town
Dr. Jason Todd’s students at Xavier University of Louisiana dramatically improved the Wikipedia article of their local town, saving the area from erasure in cultural memory. This is Dr. Todd on the impact of such an assignment. I tried incorporating Wikipedia into a writing class back in the spring of 2008, during my first year … Continued
When students write women scientists into Wikipedia
What can students do to fix Wikipedia’s gender gap? Turns out they can do a lot. University and college instructors who use our resources to teach Wikipedia writing assignments have their students work on a diverse range of subjects on Wikipedia — from anthropology to zoology. Not only do students expand Wikipedia’s coverage of academic topics … Continued
Last chance to sign up for July Wikidata courses!
Like Wikipedia, Wikidata is a collaborative online community that organizes knowledge and presents it to the world for free. This global repository is important for so many reasons, chiefly among them that the data stored in Wikidata is machine readable. That means when you ask Alexa or Siri a question, it’s likely that the answer is coming … Continued