Never Use Wikipedia For Your Research IL Palooza Grant MacEwan University 19 April 2013 What We Tell Our Students A “Wikipedia Advisory” appears on each RDC subject guide under the Find Encyclopedias, etc. tab. Before Wikipedia 2007: This is not a University! 2008-2009: Focused Initiatives 2009-2010: Refocus Assignments 2010-2011: The Research Process 2011-2012: The Student as Learner Proto-Wikipedia Project HIST 208 : Modern World History from 1789 Pros: Cons: Better than an essay More time needed Less stressful Wikipedia tutorial needed Marking rubric needed Wikipedia Education Program “The goal of the Wikipedia Education Program is to engage students and professors across disciplines, universities, and countries in using Wikipedia as a teaching tool.”1 1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Canada_Education_Program The Wikipedia Project 2012-2013: Constructing Knowledge HIST 208 : Modern World History from 1789 The Research Assignment The Proposal The Bibliography The Research Paper The Wikipedia Project What We Hoped For: • enhanced research skills • enhanced critical thinking • enhanced technological abilities and confidence The Wikipedia Project Enhanced Research Skills: Pros: • Learning and re-learning how to use library resources • Learning about and finding the right resources (esp. databases) • Organization: Research takes time • Referencing Cons: • Finding enough sources • Finding information – spent more time on research than writing itself • More time needed to find and request information (requesting archival material) • Time management The Wikipedia Project Enhanced Critical Thinking: Pros: • Learning about history: • People will do anything for gold • Canada was not as progressive as thought • Things are forgotten/missing that seem very important Cons: The Wikipedia Project Enhanced Technical Abilities and Confidence: Pros: Cons: • Wiki code • People deleting information • General animosity toward Wikipedia • Disappearing sandboxes The Wikipedia Project Other: Pros: • Contributing to the world via Wikipedia • Satisfying • Great appreciation for characters/article content • Open-ended articles • Learning about communication: • condense and summarize • less formal style • learning how to write historically/scholarly • An interesting substitution to a term paper Cons: • Class time suffered The Wikipedia Project What We Learned: • Students appreciated that their work had a larger audience. • Students expressed a greater appreciation for research. • Students had a better understanding of Wikipedia authority. • Students can navigate technology but dislike creating using technology. • Encourage students to work in pairs. • Class time suffered.