[liberationtech] Fwd: [H-NATIONALISM] Wikipedia Class Assignments

[Katy Pearce ucsb]

Thought that this might be of interest to some here....


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ari Ariel <ariel at mail.h-net.msu.edu>
Date: Tue, Mar 20, 2012 at 8:45 AM
Subject: [H-NATIONALISM] Wikipedia Class Assignments
To: H-NATIONALISM at h-net.msu.edu


The folks at Wikipedia are promoting the idea of university classes
incorporating Wikipedia projects. That is the students would made additions
to Wikipedia articles, for class credit. The professor would monitor the
quality, and the folks at Wikipedia would provide all sorts of technical
help.

I'm one of those helpers--in my secret life when not editing H-ETHNIC I've
been editing a lot of Wikipedia articles. Looking at hundreds of history
articles, my take is that the average Wiki contributor is a male
undergraduate who is mostly interested in military or political history,
and is generally not familiar with social or cultural history, nor with
historiography, nor with the scholarly literature. The articles need help.
Since they are the #1 source used by students any upgrading would be a
public service. But it also may teach the students to write and cite--and
get instant feedback, with their work actually published for the world to
see.

The program is in startup mode and is operating in the US, Canada, UK,
Australia and India, as well as Brazil (in Portuguese). The project has
been endorsed by the Sociology and Psychology associations, which have
activities underway.

The cost is zero. Anyone interested in giving it a try for next year should
contact me.  We have a handful of historians from the US and France
planning on giving it a try next year and are looking for more.  (Any
college class is eligible--it does not have to be history.)

Richard Jensen
rjensen at uic.edu

There is some information on the Wikipedia program at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Ambassadors/Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Ambassadors/Current_ambassadors

on the Sociologists see
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/11/18/sociology-association-encourages-members-help-improve-wikipedia