A student reflects on her Wikipedia success
Jane Lee, a student in Dr. Joan Strassmann’s Behavioral Ecology course at Washington University in St. Louis, vastly improved a Wikipedia article about the Small heath butterfly species last fall. She added 4,723 words and went into depth about the butterfly’s taxonomy, life cycle, habitat, and behavior. And her work has been viewed more than 1,000 times by curious … Continued
Wehwalt is ensuring the quality of Wikipedia’s coverage of American political history
Every experienced Wikipedia editor has a different way of improving the valuable resource that is Wikipedia. There are plenty of tasks that fall to these volunteers editors, not only in terms of adding missing content, but also in copy-editing existing material, fact-checking sourced content, checking sources for reliability, consulting with other editors about Wikipedia policy, … Continued
How one prolific Wikipedian is giving voice to pre-20th century women’s stories
As part of Women’s History Month, we’re looking at how our programs are helping to close Wikipedia’s gender gap. So far, we’ve featured work by students in our Classroom Program, who have improved Wikipedia’s coverage of women directors, women in STEM, women in academia, and more. This week, we’re profiling Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight, a prolific Wikipedian and a participant in our Visiting Scholars program, a … Continued
Student at York University wins faculty writing prize for Wikipedia article
“Did you know… that the Canadian government invests millions of dollars in First Nations communities to close the digital divide in Canada?” On February 8, 2017, this blurb appeared on Wikipedia’s main page in the Did You Know? section, which features interesting facts from newly developed articles. In this case, the article was created and fleshed out … Continued
Writing a Wikipedia article — the student’s perspective
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
Bugging Wikipedia: Opening up insect ecology
Dr. Chelse Prather assigned students to write Wikipedia articles as part of her “Insects and Society” course at Radford University. In this post, she discusses the design of that course, and the benefits it brought to her students. Insects affect human daily life in both positive and negative ways. Most humans are not conscious of … Continued
The Year of Science spreads to Brazil
Wikipedia is the go-to source of knowledge for human beings around the globe. That’s why the Wiki Education Foundation’s Year of Science campaign works with science classrooms in US and Canadian universities. Together, we’re bringing clearer, more comprehensive knowledge about science to the public. But just as knowledge transcends borders, so does Wikipedia. So we … Continued
How Geobiology came to Wikipedia
We hear many stories of scientists visiting Wikipedia, only to find that knowledge related to their field is missing. A chemist may find certain compounds don’t have an article; a zoologist is likely to find a species of bird isn’t well described. That’s one of the things that inspired us to focus so much energy … Continued
Emerson performing arts students expand Wikipedia’s coverage of playwrights
Every empty Wikipedia article tells a story. When the public turns to Wikipedia for knowledge and nothing comes back, it tells us something about knowledge, culture, and science. Who tells those stories? Who gets a starring role? At Emerson College, 50 students in Dr. Magda Romanska’s World Drama class tackled both stories. Looking at the … Continued
The slow, necessary death of the research paper
Timothy Henningsen is an Assistant Professor of English at the College of DuPage. He’s run Wikipedia assignments in about a dozen courses, and has talked about the experience elsewhere. In this post, “The Slow, Necessary Death of the Research Paper (And How Wikipedia Can Revive Composition Instruction)” he discusses the benefit of Wikipedia writing assignments compared … Continued