Regular readers of the “Did You Know” section of Wikipedia’s main page may have noticed a lot of buzz about wasps lately. Articles from nine students in Dr. Joan Strassmann’s Behavioral Ecology course have been given Did You Know nods this term, and 13 more are in the works. As part of the course assignment, students … Continued
We’re proud to announce the publication of our second subject-specific handout, Editing Wikipedia articles on Medicine. This handout joins Editing Wikipedia articles on Psychology in our series of brochures designed to illuminate the nuanced writing and editing guidelines in these subject areas. The medicine brochure, in particular, covers suggestions for writing quality medical articles, including proper … Continued
I am happy to announce Samantha Erickson as our new Outreach Manager. Samantha joined the Wiki Education Foundation in mid-November to take the lead in the design and implementation of our pilot program, which aims to reach high-achieving university students and encourage them to contribute to Wikipedia. We believe that there are ways of engaging … Continued
Bringing more instructors into Wikipedia helps bring more content to Wikipedia, and that means more knowledge and information shared with the world. One of the ways the Wiki Education Foundation is hoping to expand the scope of Wikipedia is by bringing in more instructors, students, and institutions that share this mission. To advance those shared … Continued
On Monday, we joined the Metropolitan New York Library Council’s (METRO’s) webcast on Wikipedia and Education, which focused on projects using Wikipedia as a teaching tool. The event was hosted by Dorothy Howard, Wikipedian-in-Residence and Open Data Fellow at METRO. Our Classroom Programs Manager, Helaine Blumenthal, spoke alongside Alex Stinson of the Wikipedia Library Interns … Continued
Fan signs are an honored tradition in the weekly College GameDay football pre-game show on ESPN. Today’s Yale vs. Harvard matchup featured a sign that got a lot of traction on social media and the college football blogosphere: “Yale Cites Wikipedia“. As the organization that bridges Wikipedia and academia, we agree with the sentiment of … Continued
1. Highlights The Assignment Design Wizard, our tool for streamlining and automating curriculum design for instructors, has been deployed for testing and feedback. This tool simplifies the support required for setting up new instructors or courses per term, furthering our goal of bringing more student editors into the program. The fall term is well underway with … Continued
Around 9 out of 10 of the editors on Wikipedia are male. What this means is that articles are shaped by one voice, and missing the diversity of content that different perspectives bring. Wikipedia articles on women are more likely to be missing than Wikipedia articles on men (compared to other encyclopedias). It’s natural: When … Continued
These last couple of months, I’ve been busily working with Seattle design firm WINTR to build the Assignment Design Wizard, a tool to help instructors create great Wikipedia assignments. The beta version of the wizard is now up and running at wizard.wikiedu.org, and my focus has turned to user testing in preparation for the official … Continued
