Student editors and Nobel Prizes
On Monday morning, news broke that the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine had been awarded to Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash, and Michael W. Young. Scientists are rarely well known by the public, and they had not been among the favorites to win the Nobel. Had you rushed to Wikipedia to find out who they were, … Continued
Discussing disability studies and Wikipedia at SFSU
Disability studies is an interdisciplinary field. Wikipedia, and other sources, often frame disability as simply a clinical issue. But disability, like most forms of knowledge, is a complicated interaction between bodies and culture. Disability studies is focused on critiquing these intersections. To do that, students must draw from a vast interdisciplinary field connecting history, sociology, … Continued
Looking back at the Classroom Program in 2015
Wiki Ed supported more students in 2015 than ever before. With improvements in our tools and resources, we’ve been able to maintain quality work from those student editors. It was a year of rapid growth and considerable change. In one term, the courses we supported rose from 117 (spring 2015) to 162 in fall 2015 … Continued
New online tools for students and instructors
You don’t learn how to ride a bike by standing on a hilltop and letting yourself roll down. Wikipedia is no different. New editors need training wheels, or things (metaphorically) go downhill fast. Since September, the Wiki Education Foundation has worked with our technical partners at WINTR to design, write, test, and deploy a new … Continued
Wiki Ed is coming to Michigan!
This week, Wikipedia Content Expert Ian Ramjohn and I will visit various campuses in Michigan to present our upcoming Wikipedia Year of Science to science instructors. Writing a Wikipedia article for a classroom assignment is a great way for students to learn the ins and outs of a topic. In a science learning environment, students research … Continued
Wiki Ed attending the National Women’s Studies Association conference this week
At the end of 2014, Wiki Ed started an educational partnership with the National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA). The goal of our initiative was to get more women’s studies courses, as well as female students, involved in writing Wikipedia content as an assignment. Some estimates place Wikipedia’s contributors at 90% male. The high percentage of … Continued
Chanitra Bishop: 5 ways Wikipedia can help teach research and critical thinking skills
In this post, Chanitra Bishop, Web and Digital Initiatives Librarian at Hunter College, draws from her experiences using Wikipedia in classrooms and libraries. Her recommendations are useful for framing classroom discussions during Wikipedia assignments, or can operate as stand-alone media literacy exercises to complement any kind of assignment. When it comes to doing research, Wikipedia may … Continued
Monthly Report for September
Highlights The fall 2015 term is underway, and we have 74 new instructors in our Classroom Program. That means our number of new instructors this term exceeds the total number of courses in every term before fall 2014. Wiki Education Foundation welcomed its first four Visiting Scholars: Barbara Page and Casey Monaghan at the University … Continued
I am ask.wikiedu.org. Ask me anything.
This week, we’re unveiling ask.wikiedu.org, a question-and-answer platform to support Wiki Education Foundation’s programs. Wikipedia has detailed help pages on just about any Wikipedia-related topic you can think of. That’s the problem ask.wikiedu.org is trying to solve. With so much help text written over the years, it’s hard for new editors to find specific answers. … Continued
Wehwalt is George Mason University’s Wikipedia Visiting Scholar
I am pleased to announce Gary Greenbaum (User:Wehwalt) as George Mason University’s Wikipedia Visiting Scholar. The Wikipedia Visiting Scholars program connects an experienced Wikipedia editor to a sponsoring research library. The library provides access to tools and special collections, and the scholar uses those resources to contribute content to Wikipedia. Gary initially teamed up with … Continued