[Foundation-l] Fwd: wikiEducation: The Classroom Wikipedia

[Fred Bauder]

> On Sat, 2 Jul 2011 13:49:58 -0600 (MDT), "Fred Bauder"
> <fredbaud at fairpoint.net> wrote:
>> We should do this before some aggressive outfit like Wikinfo jumps
>> in...
>> It wouldn't be an anyone can edit wiki. Only authorized student
>> accounts
>> could edit. It would be a teaching tool.
>>
>> Fred
>
> To do this is not a big deal, but it would only have an added value for
> us
> if the result could be somehow merged into Wikipedia once the assessment
> has been completed. It is not difficult to organize, but it requires some
> preliminary planning (only articles absent in Wikipedia would be
> assigned?
> What if they did not exist at the time of the assignment but were created
> before the assessment? Who will merge? etc).
>
> Cheers
> Yaroslav

I'm not quite sure what Jacob Franklin has in mind, but I remember once
an elementary school class edited the article "Bear". It was a really
good exercise. This was in the early days, and they were pretty much
starting from scratch. I'm sure none of it remains, it was done in the
way elementary school children do. The added value is educational. We are
a non-profit charity. I can sell this to the University of North
Carolina, ibiblio, in a heartbeat.

It would not be merged. It would be the collaborative product of say 6th
graders. It could get better and better, but would always be limited by
that horizon. And you could always start over, although that will
eventually become a sterile exercise for common topics.

One of the advantages is that you can pick whatever topic the students
are exercised over. I know when I was a kid Peanuts, the comic strip, or
George Gobel, the comedian, would have generated major enthusiasm. Today
that might be Lady Gaga.

A package might be developed that could be installed at each
participating school and become a regular part of learning to write
collaboratively.

Fred