Teaching with Wikipedia and other Wikimedia foundation wikis

Abstract

Wikipedia and other wikis operated by the Wikimedia Foundation are finding increasing applications in teaching and learning. This workshop will demonstrate how teachers from academia and beyond can use those wikis in their courses. Wikipedia can be used for various assignments: for example, students can be asked to reference an unreferenced article or create a completely new one. Students can also work on creating a free textbook on Wikibooks, learn about journalism on Wikinews or engage in variety of media-related projects on Commons. In doing so, students will see that writing an article and related assignments are not a 'tedious assignment' but activities that millions do 'for fun'. They will also gain a deeper understanding of what Wikipedia is, and how (un)reliable it can be. They and the course leaders are assisted by a lively, real world community. Last, but not least, their work will also benefit - and be improved upon - by the entire world. The workshop will focus on English Wikipedia, the most popular WMF wiki with regards to where the teaching assignments are taking place, but will also discuss the educational opportunities on other WMF wikis, such as Wikibooks. An overview of the Wikipedia School and University Project will be presented. There will be a discussion of Wikipedia policies related to teaching assignments, and a presentation of tools developed to make teaching with Wikipedia easier. The participants will see what kind of assignments can be done on Wikipedia (from learning simple wiki editing skills, through the assignments designed to teach students about proper referencing and sources reliability, to writing paper assignments with the goal of developing Good and Featured Articles), and how they can be implemented most easily and efficiently, avoiding common pitfalls and dealing with common problems (such as how to avoid having your students' articles deleted minutes after creation). Finally, the participants will be given an opportunity to create a draft syllabus for a future course they may want to teach on a WMF wiki (bringing your laptops for that part is highly recommended). © 2010 ACM.