Representing accomplishments of elite Indigenous athletes on Wikipedia
What are the implications if the world’s leading source of online information highlights the accomplishments of elite Indigenous athletes? It’s a question that Dr. Vicky Paraschak’s class at University of Windsor surely discussed as they created brand new Wikipedia biographies for Indigenous athletes from Canada as an assignment this last fall. Tony Cote, the first … Continued
Teaching students that their words have power
“College professors tend not to allow you to include a Wikipedia article as a citation in a paper you write. So what are you doing encouraging your students to go to Wikipedia?” Houston Matters host Craig Cohen asked Dr. Melissa Weininger in a radio interview last week. “Well, I’m not encouraging them to go to … Continued
Trying something new in an already popular class
“I was hesitant about shaking up a popular class that had worked well for years, but one statistic finally convinced me. … And this assignment quickly took on a much deeper significance than a research paper.” Dr. Stephennie Mulder at University of Texas at Austin decided to scrap the research paper for her Fall 2018 … Continued
Wikipedia’s gender inequality tackled by Rice students writing ‘activist’ articles
Jewish women are underrepresented on the reference site — but not if this class has anything to write about it Wikipedia is the most popular reference site on the internet, with nearly 20,000 articles added every month. Yet an estimated 85% of its editors are male — a problem of gender imbalance the site’s founder, Jimmy Wales, … Continued
Remembering the unnamed women of history as a Wiki Scholar
Dr. Bridget Marshall is an Associate Professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and recently completed one of our Wiki Scholar courses with faculty at her institution. The Wikipedia training course is part of an initiative at UMass Lowell to build digital literacy teaching capacity and address the gender gap on campus and in Wikipedia. … Continued
6 million articles on Wikipedia!
As of late last week, there are 6 million encyclopedic articles on the English Wikipedia. Milestones like this serve as a reminder of how far this resource, which we all have at our fingertips, has come. This event is also an opportunity to acknowledge and appreciate the continued commitment of the Wikipedian community to share … Continued
How to share an oral history collection more widely
Jake Kubrin is Metadata Librarian at the Stanford Law School Robert Crown Library who recently completed our intermediate-level Wikidata training course. Here he shares what linked open data makes possible for his work. The American Bar Association (ABA) began conducting a series of oral history interviews of leading women lawyers, judges, and legal professionals in … Continued
Teaching Innovations at Vanderbilt
We’ve all been told—or been the one telling people—to not use Wikipedia as a source. There’s a variety of reasons, of course, with the main one being the credibility of the information. The Wikipedia community is aware of this and has made a series of changes aimed at rectifying this. Wiki Education’s programs are also … Continued
Improving information about disability healthcare on Wikipedia
When Wikipedia is a first stop for individuals interested in developmental disability-related healthcare, isn’t it important that the information they find there be complete and accurate? Wikipedia is one of the places many individuals who lack knowledge about developmental disability issues turn to. Some healthcare practitioners consult the site and/or use it as a resource. … Continued
Celebrating your students’ work at the end of the term
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