http://www.educause.edu/content.asp?page_id=15031&PRODUCT_CODE=ELI082/SE...
"To enhance the learning experience of a term paper, students were required to publish their papers in Wikipedia. Publishing for a large audience provided authentic feedback and encouraged students to do their best work. Using Wikipedia also allowed students to connect with a vibrant community and share their knowledge by making their papers publicly accessible."
I haven't watched the profession, but the sentence "students were required to publish their papers in Wikipedia" makes me cringe. One can only hope the professors introduced them to (or understood) the norms and policies of the site, and didn't require original research...
-- phoebe
er, watched the presentation, rather.
I am watching the profession, and cringing ;)
-- phoebe
On Thu, Apr 10, 2008 at 5:25 PM, phoebe ayers phoebe.ayers@gmail.com wrote:
http://www.educause.edu/content.asp?page_id=15031&PRODUCT_CODE=ELI082/SE...
"To enhance the learning experience of a term paper, students were required to publish their papers in Wikipedia. Publishing for a large audience provided authentic feedback and encouraged students to do their best work. Using Wikipedia also allowed students to connect with a vibrant community and share their knowledge by making their papers publicly accessible."
I haven't watched the profession, but the sentence "students were required to publish their papers in Wikipedia" makes me cringe. One can only hope the professors introduced them to (or understood) the norms and policies of the site, and didn't require original research...
-- phoebe
On Fri, Apr 11, 2008 at 1:25 AM, phoebe ayers phoebe.ayers@gmail.com wrote:
http://www.educause.edu/content.asp?page_id=15031&PRODUCT_CODE=ELI082/SE...
"To enhance the learning experience of a term paper, students were required to publish their papers in Wikipedia. Publishing for a large audience provided authentic feedback and encouraged students to do their best work. Using Wikipedia also allowed students to connect with a vibrant community and share their knowledge by making their papers publicly accessible."
I haven't watched the profession, but the sentence "students were required to publish their papers in Wikipedia" makes me cringe. One can only hope the professors introduced them to (or understood) the norms and policies of the site, and didn't require original research...
Yes, there are clear differences in methodology between a term paper and a Wikipedia article (completely aside from wiki versus non-wiki), as well as in genre of writing style, which is certainly non-trivial. But I still admire people who are taking the initiative in this regard - even if they are making mistakes (provided they/we learn from those mistakes!). There is an interesting ongoing writeup by an educator in the University of British Colombia about his experiences of a similar project: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jbmurray/Madness
Cormac
On Fri, Apr 11, 2008 at 5:43 PM, Cormac Lawler cormaggio@gmail.com wrote:
I haven't watched the profession, but the sentence "students were required to publish their papers in Wikipedia" makes me cringe. One can only hope the professors introduced them to (or understood) the norms and policies of the site, and didn't require original research...
/me vouches for the tension between the individual paper as a product and the collaborative participative wiki as a community and a process. at some point you have to choose between one or the other model and it is tricky if you dont know which youre doing up front - especially for the co-authors. j
Indeed. I have had teachers try (enthusiastically try!) to do the collaborative wiki writing thing and then find themselves reverting to individual papers because it is not only familiar to them and the students, but it is a genre of learning activity that fits more easily within the dominant assessment regime. At least in American high schools.
Phoebe, you totally nailed it with the observation about professors often requiring original research. They do it because that's a fabulous way to learn and it underscores an important tension: the policies of Wikipedia were devised to support encyclopedia writing, not learning.
Often it's productive for learners to freely explore wrong ideas in detail, to develop their interpretations, etc. These kinds of issues are precisely why I set up a student writing wiki separate from Wikipedia, so that there would be freedom to ask students to write in many different ways without bothering Wikipedians. In particular, I really wanted them to be free to use original research and explore possibilities. That's not to say that they don't eventually often write material that is encyclopedic and appropriate for Wikipedia, but the process is just different.
Andrea
On Fri, Apr 11, 2008 at 8:45 AM, Janet Hawtin lucychili@gmail.com wrote:
On Fri, Apr 11, 2008 at 5:43 PM, Cormac Lawler cormaggio@gmail.com wrote:
I haven't watched the profession, but the sentence "students were required to publish their papers in Wikipedia" makes me cringe. One can only hope the professors introduced them to (or understood) the norms and policies of the site, and didn't require original research...
/me vouches for the tension between the individual paper as a product and the collaborative participative wiki as a community and a process. at some point you have to choose between one or the other model and it is tricky if you dont know which youre doing up front - especially for the co-authors.
j
Wiki-research-l mailing list Wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l
On Fri, Apr 11, 2008 at 11:00 PM, Andrea Forte andrea.forte@gmail.com wrote:
Often it's productive for learners to freely explore wrong ideas in detail, to develop their interpretations, etc. These kinds of issues are precisely why I set up a student writing wiki separate from Wikipedia, so that there would be freedom to ask students to write in many different ways without bothering Wikipedians. In particular, I really wanted them to be free to use original research and explore possibilities. That's not to say that they don't eventually often write material that is encyclopedic and appropriate for Wikipedia, but the process is just different.
some wikis have incubators for formative work again the challenge is that it is hard to collaborate if the purpose is not explicit sometimes that is hard if it is experimental
I am currently using Wikibooks to compile theory and methods in my discipline for my comprehensive exams. To me, my theory class could have been doing this all along. Has anyone used Wikibooks in the classroom to create the textbook? I know Curtis Bonk at IU has done some of this.
On Fri, Apr 11, 2008 at 9:41 AM, Janet Hawtin lucychili@gmail.com wrote:
On Fri, Apr 11, 2008 at 11:00 PM, Andrea Forte andrea.forte@gmail.com wrote:
Often it's productive for learners to freely explore wrong ideas in detail, to develop their interpretations, etc. These kinds of issues are precisely why I set up a student writing wiki separate from Wikipedia, so that there would be freedom to ask students to write in many different ways without bothering Wikipedians. In particular, I really wanted them to be free to use original research and explore possibilities. That's not to say that they don't eventually often write material that is encyclopedic and appropriate for Wikipedia, but the process is just different.
some wikis have incubators for formative work again the challenge is that it is hard to collaborate if the purpose is not explicit sometimes that is hard if it is experimental
Wiki-research-l mailing list Wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l
I had a go at this with my students in a small class a couple years ago:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Communication_Theory
And I'm doing something similar now:
It's not an easy thing, but it's fun to play with, at least. Not sure how effective it is. Had I continued to teach the Com Theory course, I probably would have iterated that textbook a bit and had students edit and expand, as well as doing original chapters.
Best,
Alex
On Fri, Apr 11, 2008 at 9:45 AM, Mark Bell typewritermark@gmail.com wrote:
I am currently using Wikibooks to compile theory and methods in my discipline for my comprehensive exams. To me, my theory class could have been doing this all along. Has anyone used Wikibooks in the classroom to create the textbook? I know Curtis Bonk at IU has done some of this.
-- // // This email is // [ ] assumed public and may be blogged / forwarded. // [X] assumed to be private, please ask before redistributing. // // Alexander C. Halavais, cyberflâneur // http://alex.halavais.net //
On Fri, Apr 11, 2008 at 1:13 AM, Cormac Lawler cormaggio@gmail.com wrote:
On Fri, Apr 11, 2008 at 1:25 AM, phoebe ayers phoebe.ayers@gmail.com wrote:
http://www.educause.edu/content.asp?page_id=15031&PRODUCT_CODE=ELI082/SE...
"To enhance the learning experience of a term paper, students were required to publish their papers in Wikipedia. Publishing for a large audience provided authentic feedback and encouraged students to do their best work. Using Wikipedia also allowed students to connect with a vibrant community and share their knowledge by making their papers publicly accessible."
I haven't watched the profession, but the sentence "students were required to publish their papers in Wikipedia" makes me cringe. One can only hope the professors introduced them to (or understood) the norms and policies of the site, and didn't require original research...
Yes, there are clear differences in methodology between a term paper and a Wikipedia article (completely aside from wiki versus non-wiki), as well as in genre of writing style, which is certainly non-trivial. But I still admire people who are taking the initiative in this regard - even if they are making mistakes (provided they/we learn from those mistakes!). There is an interesting ongoing writeup by an educator in the University of British Colombia about his experiences of a similar project: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jbmurray/Madness
Cormac
I just discovered Jbmurray's project the other day, and was going to post to this list about it as well! It's fantastic. He went through and had his upper-level students bring a bunch of stubs about Latin American literature up to GA/FA status.
That seems like a particularly good project, because you are a) making people who have something of a background in the field do the research; and b) if you start with a stub chances are better that the topic is notable, won't get deleted, etc.; c) you end up with FAs -- win all around.
Anyway, I think he is interested in feedback and talking more about his project/similar projects.
Also, I've been talking to Jay Walsh at the Foundation -- he fields requests from professors occasionally who are interested in learning more about teaching wikipedia or using it in their classroom. I know there's already a project on en:wp, but it seems like it would be useful to try to put together a more polished packet of materials to hand out to professors who want to use Wikipedia for their assignments, especially when there isn't a volunteer free to work with them one-on-one.
-- phoebe
wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org