Writing collaboratively with wikis is a powerful tool, and there is at least some literature on using wikis in an educational setting; I'd look into the WikiSym conference proceedings as a start. Contributing to Wikipedia specifically, however, is a separate issue. It is somewhat irresponsible to simply drop students into the project and tell them to start writing, as the pages on assignments at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:School_and_university_projects and elsewhere should make clear. Anyone -- student or not -- writing for Wikipedia needs to understand that there are clear rules and expectations for encyclopedia writing on the site. Facts must be referenced and sources given; the core content policies of Neutral Point of View, Verifiability and No Original Research must be followed; and the social policies of working with others civilly to achieve consensus need to be respected. Encyclopedic, summary style should be followed: typical term papers that make an argument regarding a set of conclusions are not acceptable and should not be dropped into the site wholesale. Without bearing all these guidelines in mind, contributions will likely be deleted or reverted by other editors, which can be a demoralizing experience for all concerned. That's not to say that writing for and working on Wikipedia can't be a great assignment, but teachers and professors should understand that they are asking students to participate in an active, working project with particular cultural and content norms. Wikipedia is certainly the encyclopedia that everyone can edit, but to edit it *well* you need to at least somewhat understand the site before you begin. -- Phoebe Ayers (librarian and author of the forthcoming "How Wikipedia Works") On Thu, Mar 13, 2008 at 2:55 PM, Gerry Mckiernan <gerrymck@iastate.edu> wrote:
***Apologies for Receipt of Duplicate Postings*** Friends/
In a recent posting to ILI-L by Kim Duckett, Librarian for Digital Technologies and Learning, at NC State University Library, I was reminded about the Wikipedia: School and University Projects article in Wikipedia.
The article provides a listing with links of past, present, and planned projects using Wikipedia as the basis/foundation of numerous (writing) assignments.
I have linked to these respective listings and provide details on various **Suggested Exercises** at
[ http://scholarship20.blogspot.com/2008/03/wikipedia-writing.html ]