[URPE] FW: Wikipedia projects in undergraduate classes

[Breen, Nancy (NIH/NCI) [E]]

This opportunity to contribute to Wikipedia may be of interest to URPE members.  NB

-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Jensen [mailto:rjensen at uic.edu] 
Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2012 12:49 PM
To: SOCIAL-CLASS at LISTSERV.UIC.EDU
Subject: Wikipedia projects in undergraduate classes

From: Richard Jensen <rjensen at uic.edu>, SOCIAL-CLASS  editor

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--I've also 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 sociology articles are poor. 
Wikipedia needs 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 mostly in the USA 
right now. The project has been endorsed by the Sociology and 
Psychology associations, which have activities underway.

Anyone interested in giving it a try for next year should contact me; 
we will have a 3-hour online training program this summer and will 
have online help and maybe on-campus help for teachers who sign 
up.  We also have a private discussion that has just started.

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

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