I think you raise a good point, Margie, about vandalism -- why not test boundaries? It just hadn't occurred to me that they would, given the very public nature of Wikipedia. But, alas, what would Cartman do? I need to keep that in mind . . . . Just to be clear, though, I didn't require my students to actually edit Wikipedia, because I agree with you. The last thing I want to do is subject the Wikipedia editors to my students who have neither the knowledge base, skills, or interest to edit particular pages. Now, I grant there are exceptions (some of my students have remarkable popular culture knowledge and good writing skills), but for the most part, they anyway aren't all that inclined to contribute to the collective wisdom exhibited in Wikipedia. I should note that my students are creating a wiki on "Web 2.0" for the end of class, but on PB Wiki, and mostly as an exercise to expose them to online, collaborative writing. ~Jenny Assistant Professor Department of Communication, SS 340 University at Albany, SUNY Albany, NY 12222 518-442-4873 jstromer@albany.edu http://www.albany.edu/~jstromer
-----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Margie Borschke Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 6:10 PM To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Subject: [Air-L] in defense of wiki vandalism....
It strikes me as almost appropriate that students who are required to edit a Wikipedia entry as part of a class, ended up vandalizing pages. I think you could argue that it is a valid response to being forced into public participation, particularly in the context of a self-organising community where all the other participants are self selected. If you'd not edited Wikipedia before, wouldn't boundaries be the first thing you'd want to test? What would Cartman do? I assure you he's not going to try the sandbox first.
I think a lot of students would also 'get' that in addition to being a knowledge resource, wikipedia is also a kind of game, something former Wikipedia editor Brion Vibber pointed out in Nicholson Baker's NY Review of Books article, The Charms of Wikipedia.
While there are clearly good pedagogical uses of Wikipedia, required editing makes me uneasy. It's not so great for students to have to learn in public and not so great for the people participating to have a group of students descend upon them either.
--Margie Borschke