Making healthcare more accessible through translation
Kitty Quintanilla is a second year medical student at Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine. Here, she shares why she’s passionate about increasing access to free information. Have you ever had your parents ramble at you about the “when I was young, we didn’t have all these computers and the internet and … Continued
Wikipedia: Impactful science communication in higher education
Sarah Mojarad teaches a Social Media for Scientists and Engineers course at the University of Southern California where students write and improve Wikipedia articles as an assignment. Here, she shares her pedagogical motivations for doing so and the impact it has on students. “Chemistry is often elusive but Wikipedia helps to make chemistry topics, and … Continued
Small class, big footprint
Dr. Michael Rushing is an Associate Professor of Piano in the Department of Music at Mississippi College and taught a Wikipedia writing assignment for the first time last fall. Here, he describes how his students responded to putting their hard work out on a world stage. In the Fall of 2018, two students in a … Continued
NIOSH gives award for educating the public through Wikipedia
Institutions know that Wikipedia is educating the world about the topics they care most about. Many want to understand how they can get involved in curating that information so it paints the most up-to-date and accurate picture of these topics. Thais Morata, a research audiologist at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), … Continued
Developing metaliterate and information literate Wikipedians in the classroom
Trudi Jacobson is Head of the Information Literacy Department at the University at Albany, SUNY. Here, she explains how she wove a Wikipedia writing assignment together with the six frameworks of information literacy. This course not only taught me how to write on Wikipedia, which by the way I always thought was the coolest concept, … Continued
Professor named Woman of the Year for student-centered, equity-focused pedagogy
When your students, colleagues, and institution all recognize you for your teaching, that’s huge. In January, Dr. Kathleen Sheppard of Missouri University of Science and Technology won a teaching award for having her students write for Wikipedia as an assignment. Now, Missouri S&T has also named her their 2019 Woman of the Year for her “willingness to engage actively in issues … Continued
5 reasons to do a Wikipedia writing assignment next term
1. Build your students’ intellectual confidence. When students can distill course topics into the essential information, translate that for a general audience, and then post that information in a public place – that feels good. Instructors who use our tools to assign students to create or expand Wikipedia articles often tell us about the confidence … Continued
Off the bookshelf and into the world
Dr. Anthony Denzer is Department Head and Associate Professor of Architectural Engineering at the University of Wyoming. He taught a Wikipedia writing assignment for the first time last fall in his architectural history course. Here, he shares why he’ll do it again. Maybe you know that Mecca Flats, built in Chicago in 1892, is a significant lost … Continued
When students become experts and experts become students
Now that Wiki Education is regularly supporting around 400 Wikipedia assignments each term, it would be easy for us to simply leave well enough alone. Term after term, the vast majority of instructors (over 90%) indicate that they will run another Wikipedia assignment with many of those making it a mainstay of their pedagogical repertoire. … Continued
Fulfilling your potential
In the decade since Bob Cummings asked Are We Ready to Use Wikipedia to Teach Writing?, the answer for hundreds of instructors has been a resounding “yes!” It’s easy to make a convincing case for using a Wikipedia assignment in the classroom. Writing a Wikipedia article teaches students valuable skills while offering an authentic experience. But … Continued