Forwarded to the list on behalf of a non-member.
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Jacob Franklin jake.franklin2@gmail.com Date: Thu, Jun 30, 2011 at 7:39 PM Subject: wikiEducation: The Classroom Wikipedia To: foundation-l-owner@lists.wikimedia.org
Dear WikiMedia, In recent weeks I have been reading about the work of your foundation and all of the wikipages you have created. The scope of your organization is vast, along with the amount of people who use its tools. I believe that this incredible reach gives you a wonderful opportunity to positively affect the lives of many people.
My name is Jake Franklin and I am an educator. I graduated from Colby College with a degree in Philosophy in 2008. Since then I have been teaching English in Shenyang, China and studying Chinese. Next year I am planning to return to the US to go to graduate school for a Masters in Educational Policy or International Education. I am extremely passionate about improving the educational opportunities, tools, and resources for all students. I believe that giving all students access to quality education both enriches their educational experience and provides them with a strong foundation to build towards a better future.
It is because of this dedication to the enrichment of education that I wish to develop a relationship with your foundation. I have an idea that I am passionate about and dedicated to and am writing this email to introduce it to you.
The basic idea is to create a version of wikipedia that is exclusively written and edited by students. It is called wikiEducation. There is one site for each grade level, and teachers can sign up their classes to be writers and editors. The site grows through students submitting their work as wikiEducation articles, which are then edited by other students. By pairing collective responsibility and a published presence, wikiEducation gives both writers and editors a sense of achievement, a feeling of responsibility and a relationship with each other that would be absent without this tool. Moreover giving students ownership of the information on the site motivates them to develop more intimate and long-lasting relationships with the material.
I think the idea would work best if implemented through the Wikimedia Foundation and therefore have come to you first. I think that you have the people and experience to build the site in the best possible way. I would like to work with you to bring this idea to fruition. I don’t have the technical know-how to build a website but I do have the desire, drive and experience to bridge the gap between the technical aspects of website building and the creation of an effective teaching tool. WikiEducation’s success depends on teacher use. I can work with the teachers and the builders to create a highly functional website that teachers will enjoy using.
The detailed business plan includes; a more detailed description of the site, information about the site’s special features, market analysis, and potential problems along with suggested solutions. Please let me know whom I should send the plan to, and how I can continue to play a role in its creation.
Sincerely, Jake Franklin Email: jake.franklin2@gmail.com Skype: jakefranklin2
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
Forwarded to the list on behalf of a non-member.
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Jacob Franklin jake.franklin2@gmail.com Date: Thu, Jun 30, 2011 at 7:39 PM Subject: wikiEducation: The Classroom Wikipedia To: foundation-l-owner@lists.wikimedia.org
Dear WikiMedia, In recent weeks I have been reading about the work of your foundation and all of the wikipages you have created. The scope of your organization is vast, along with the amount of people who use its tools. I believe that this incredible reach gives you a wonderful opportunity to positively affect the lives of many people.
My name is Jake Franklin and I am an educator. I graduated fromColby College with a degree in Philosophy in 2008. Since then I have been teaching English in Shenyang, China and studying Chinese. Next year I am planning to return to the US to go to graduate school for a Masters in Educational Policy or International Education. I am extremely passionate about improving the educational opportunities, tools, and resources for all students. I believe that giving all students access to quality education both enriches their educational experience and provides them with a strong foundation to build towards a better future.
It is because of this dedication to the enrichment of education that I wish to develop a relationship with your foundation. I have an idea that I am passionate about and dedicated to and am writing this email to introduce it to you.
The basic idea is to create a version of wikipedia that isexclusively written and edited by students. It is called wikiEducation. There is one site for each grade level, and teachers can sign up their classes to be writers and editors. The site grows through students submitting their work as wikiEducation articles, which are then edited by other students. By pairing collective responsibility and a published presence, wikiEducation gives both writers and editors a sense of achievement, a feeling of responsibility and a relationship with each other that would be absent without this tool. Moreover giving students ownership of the information on the site motivates them to develop more intimate and long-lasting relationships with the material.
I think the idea would work best if implemented through theWikimedia Foundation and therefore have come to you first. I think that you have the people and experience to build the site in the best possible way. I would like to work with you to bring this idea to fruition. I dont have the technical know-how to build a website but I do have the desire, drive and experience to bridge the gap between the technical aspects of website building and the creation of an effective teaching tool. WikiEducations success depends on teacher use. I can work with the teachers and the builders to create a highly functional website that teachers will enjoy using.
The detailed business plan includes; a more detailed descriptionof the site, information about the sites special features, market analysis, and potential problems along with suggested solutions. Please let me know whom I should send the plan to, and how I can continue to play a role in its creation.
Sincerely, Jake Franklin Email: jake.franklin2@gmail.com Skype: jakefranklin2-- [[User:Ral315]] _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
On Sat, 2 Jul 2011 13:49:58 -0600 (MDT), "Fred Bauder" fredbaud@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
On Sat, 2 Jul 2011 13:49:58 -0600 (MDT), "Fred Bauder" fredbaud@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
Hi,
On Sun, Jul 03, 2011 at 12:14:39AM +0400, Yaroslav M. Blanter wrote:
On Sat, 2 Jul 2011 13:49:58 -0600 (MDT), "Fred Bauder" fredbaud@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.
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).
Sorry to dampen things, but as we're proposing "what if"s, what if some of Wikipedia's material was copied to it and it just became a kind of duplicate of Wikipedia run, as proposed, by the WMF? There would be admins etc, but run by students for students: that's not always a good thing. With regard to what you said about maybe only articles absent in Wikipedia would be assigned, that's a good idea (it avoids the direct "what if" mentioned above), but an assignment you can't straight to a Wikipedia article for information but actually have to go browsing the web for? That would horrify many students I know. ;-)
It's definitely a good idea though, I'm not disputing that. I'd certainly get involved!
Disclaimer: I am a student. :-)
Isabell.
Hi,
On Sun, Jul 03, 2011 at 12:14:39AM +0400, Yaroslav M. Blanter wrote:
On Sat, 2 Jul 2011 13:49:58 -0600 (MDT), "Fred Bauder" fredbaud@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.
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).
Sorry to dampen things, but as we're proposing "what if"s, what if some of Wikipedia's material was copied to it and it just became a kind of duplicate of Wikipedia run, as proposed, by the WMF? There would be admins etc, but run by students for students: that's not always a good thing. With regard to what you said about maybe only articles absent in Wikipedia would be assigned, that's a good idea (it avoids the direct "what if" mentioned above), but an assignment you can't straight to a Wikipedia article for information but actually have to go browsing the web for? That would horrify many students I know. ;-)
It's definitely a good idea though, I'm not disputing that. I'd certainly get involved!
Disclaimer: I am a student. :-)
Isabell.
3rd grade, or post-graduate? Well, the existence of a Wikipedia article on almost any subject is always going to be there, no matter what kind of writing exercise students participate in. Great assignments will be about subjects our regular editors don't have much interest in but students do, ephemeral, topical subjects.
Copying from or using Wikipedia, or any other encyclopedia, as a source would diminish rather than increase evaluation of work; that is pretty much standard practice anyway.
Fred
Hi,
On 2 July 2011 23:28, Fred Bauder fredbaud@fairpoint.net wrote:
On 2 July 2011 23:16, Isabell Long isabell121@gmail.com wrote:
Sorry to dampen things, but as we're proposing "what if"s, what if some of Wikipedia's material was copied to it and it just became a kind of duplicate of Wikipedia run, as proposed, by the WMF? There would be admins etc, but run by students for students: that's not always a good thing. With regard to what you said about maybe only articles absent in Wikipedia would be assigned, that's a good idea (it avoids the direct "what if" mentioned above), but an assignment you can't straight to a Wikipedia article for information but actually have to go browsing the web for? That would horrify many students I know. ;-)
Let's try part of the second-to-last sentence again: "... an assignment on a subject you can't go straight to a Wikipedia article for information on...".
3rd grade, or post-graduate?
That's another question I meant to ask: what are we defining "students" as here?
Well, the existence of a Wikipedia article on almost any subject is always going to be there, no matter what kind of writing exercise students participate in. Great assignments will be about subjects our regular editors don't have much interest in but students do, ephemeral, topical subjects.
Ah, right. Like the example you used earlier: an article on Lady Gaga. :-)
Copying from or using Wikipedia, or any other encyclopedia, as a source would diminish rather than increase evaluation of work; that is pretty much standard practice anyway.
That's very true. This question delves a bit into the specifics and "rules" of running such a project, but would that then get put onto the Wiki (going back to my "what if" in my previous email...), would the student be asked to re-do it, or would all of this be at the discretion of the supervising teacher? I assume the latter, but we don't have to delve into the specifics at this time of night. :-)
Isabell.
Hi,
On 2 July 2011 23:28, Fred Bauder fredbaud@fairpoint.net wrote:
On 2 July 2011 23:16, Isabell Long isabell121@gmail.com wrote:
Sorry to dampen things, but as we're proposing "what if"s, what if some of Wikipedia's material was copied to it and it just became a kind of duplicate of Wikipedia run, as proposed, by the WMF? There would be admins etc, but run by students for students: that's not always a good thing. With regard to what you said about maybe only articles absent in Wikipedia would be assigned, that's a good idea (it avoids the direct "what if" mentioned above), but an assignment you can't straight to a Wikipedia article for information but actually have to go browsing the web for? That would horrify many students I know. ;-)
Let's try part of the second-to-last sentence again: "... an assignment on a subject you can't go straight to a Wikipedia article for information on...".
That gets hard, probably beyond what a school teacher can do, or get away with. We have areas in Wikipedia that are not covered, sometimes not even minimally, because they are not part of the canon of knowledge. Any school teacher, indeed any Wikipedia editor, who ventures into such territory aggressively can expect serious trouble.
For example, the Great Recession, an article deleted on Wikipedia. The article is about the current economic malaise and the fact that there seems to be no way out. Essentially the collapse of capitalism, and for the exact reasons Marx predicted, concentration of capital and falling rate of profit.
A decent assignment for a post-graduate seminar, as would be a creative exercise about how and why the Chinese dictatorship will collapse. Might be nice for a Harvard class with a few little princes enrolled.
3rd grade, or post-graduate?
That's another question I meant to ask: what are we defining "students" as here?
Jake Franklin was breaking it down by grade level. And that makes some sense, although it would probably work best for kids of any level who are really into it. Wikipedia would be a grim business if you were forced to do it. Perhaps from 3rd grade or so to post-graduate level with layers. So maybe 6 English language wikis, closed to all but enrolled students, although it is ideal for home schooling.
Well, the existence of a Wikipedia article on almost any subject is always going to be there, no matter what kind of writing exercise students participate in. Great assignments will be about subjects our regular editors don't have much interest in but students do, ephemeral, topical subjects.
Ah, right. Like the example you used earlier: an article on Lady Gaga. :-)
Except that we have pretty much exhausted that subject. There are things children are interested in are under Wikipedia's radar.
Copying from or using Wikipedia, or any other encyclopedia, as a source would diminish rather than increase evaluation of work; that is pretty much standard practice anyway.
That's very true. This question delves a bit into the specifics and "rules" of running such a project, but would that then get put onto the Wiki (going back to my "what if" in my previous email...), would the student be asked to re-do it, or would all of this be at the discretion of the supervising teacher? I assume the latter, but we don't have to delve into the specifics at this time of night. :-)
Isabell.
Re-do by command would be grim. I think learning and creativity would be maximized by evaluation of the best work done of the student's choosing.
Fred
Fantastic idea. One I'd really like to see put to fruition. I know as a kid I would have taken to the idea immediately.
However, considering this is the WMF discussion list, I don't think it's a feasible project for the the WMF. The Foundation hosts sites that are volunteer community generated and maintained. Such a project would require a full time staff for governance of the community and its relations. Imagine a world in which the sum of all human knowledge is trapped in an edit war between fifth graders. School age is the relavent age for learning social skills; based on what I've seen from online communities in my fifteen years online I'd rather not subject a preteen to a project that wasn't maintained by a professional staff. WikiEducation would need that. My wish is that Mr. Franklin can find a nice benefactor to set up such a non-profit. I'd go to work for them in a heartbeat.
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org