On Feb 20, 2008 12:38 AM, Brianna Laugher <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On 20/02/2008, Cormac Lawler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I'm doing a > > class next week on educational implications of wikis/Wikipedia - and > part of > > that is to give a look at what happens "inside Wikipedia". You can find > this > > at: <http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Inside_Wikipedia> - > > please go edit/comment/fork as you see fit. > > I gave a talk at a Linux conference a couple of weeks ago that you may > find useful. The aim was to demystify Wikipedia bureaucracy for those > who are comfortable using it but may run into common problems when > trying to edit. I talked about two common areas for trouble, article > deletion and dispute resolution. > > Slides: > < > http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Who%27s_Behind_Wikipedia%3F_slides_Brianna_Laugher.pdf > > > > Afterwards I spoke to a journo who more or less turned it into an article: > < > http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;1866322157;pp;1;fp;4194304;fpid;1 > > > > Possibly useful diagram (this is supposed to be on slide 4, it doesn't > always show up...) > < > http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:English_Wikipedia_user_access_levels_diagram.svg > > > > My talk was videoed but unfortunately that did not surface yet :( > > Anyway I think this talk assumes too much for me to give it to an > audience of teachers. At one interview I gave I found people did not > know about the history tab, and the ability to view each previous > revision. So I will put more emphasis on those things for a teacher > audience, compared to a Linux tech audience.
Thanks for this Brianna - nice slides! But yes, you're right that this assumes *way* more info than teachers normally want. People usually want to see how the community works to build something useful - so basic things like history, recent changes, watchlists, talk pages are essential. Oh yes, and the edit button. :-) People want to see how vandalism and bias are dealt with. What kinds of peer review mechanisms are in place (or in planning). Etc etc. These are the basics in "Wikipedia literacy" - and we clearly still have a lot more work to do to educate educators and students about these. But then, the vulnerable features of Wikipedia are its great educational opportunities - to help people think critically about where information comes from (and not simply translate that into "Wikipedia can't be trusted, but the Guardian can"). I loved the quote from Jenkins in the article Andrea linked to: "Just as young people coming of age in a hunting based culture learn by playing with bows and arrows, young people coming of age in an information society learn by playing with information." This for me underlines that an "abstinence only" attitude to Wikipedia is naive in the extreme. Cormac
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