The SurRural Librarian

In case anyone was in doubt of Wikipedia’s world-wide high profile.

What you get from being the first hit on Google.

My Junior High students are writing a Wikipedia entry on our school. It’s a great way to get them involved with the content creation side of things, good editing practice and fun.*

There are so many good ways to use Wikipedia and to teach it. It’s crucial to address it early and often. Wikipedia is often the first entry in any Google or Ask search, and people often use it without knowing what wiki is.

I hear adults say many silly things about Wikipedia. I hope the frenzy dies down soon, but in the meantime I need to get this off my chest. Here are a few things I’d like adults to remember when they talk about Wikipedia with students.

Wikipedia is a wiki, not the other way around. The word wiki isn’t synonymous with Wikipedia. That’s like saying all cheese is wiz.

Wikipedia is not out to get you. It’s a huge effort and there are many good-intentioned people working to make it a very informative site. It’s just a wiki, not a plot to disseminate inaccuracies.

Please do not intentionally add erroneous information to Wikipedia to make a point. This is vandalism. It’s not very good modeling.

If you find erroneous information in Wikipedia, change it!

Of course it shouldn’t be your only source of information. And of course it shouldn’t be in a bibliography. Not only is it written by anonymous folks on the internets, it’s an encyclopedia. Last time I checked, an encyclopedia wasn’t a valid bibliographic entry.

Everyone should read at least these two pages before using or teaching Wikipedia:

Ten Things You Might Not Know About Wikipedia

Researching With Wikipedia

And if you take the time to teach Wikipedia use to your students (and I hope you do), I recommend sharing this classic video clip:

Stephen Colbert on Wikiality
(I embed the video in my site to avoid the distracting adds & links. I also skip the first minute to avoid the silly drug reference. It’s worth it, a brilliant piece of comedy.)

*If you’re curious, here’s how we’ve structured the Wikipedia project. Everyone is responsible for one section, then we’ll be swapping sections to go through an editing process. We’re using Google Docs to co-write the entry for now, so we don’t have to be “live” with the material until we’re ready. Our principal will also have access to our document to lend a hand with the big picture. So far the toughest part has been keeping the pieces neutral and without personal narrative. Once we post to Wikipedia, it’ll be fun to see other people come in and edit (I’m sure we’ll get some townspeople interested). I wonder if it will be hard for the students to let go.

I’ve been so jazzed about our wiki project, that I forgot to share. Our 5th/6th grade class has been working on a unit on advertising. While their classroom teacher covers print marketing strategies, I’ve been applying the same concepts to discussions of internet advertising. It’s the most fun I’ve had teaching yet.

To make it more exciting, the students and I have been creating a wiki on internet marketing towards kids.

With all the 2.0 hype, I’ve been trying not to jump on the bandwagon with no reason. So I got my own little web 2.0 laboratory happening.

And, I’m here to tell you, I am sold.

Just in the short amount of time we’ve been able to spend on it (scheduling? can’t I just have them all day long?) the amount of learning I’ve seen is awe inspiring. Here’s a short list of some of what I’m seeing:

Working as a team and being part of a community
Respecting the work of others
Writing for an audience
Owning a project
Slowing down and being more careful with their work

Plus..
Learning how Wikipedia works. They really get the everyone edits concept now. Librarians take note.

Plus…
Learning great tech skills in multiple apps. They’ve picked up screen shots, resizing images, converting image types. They’re uploading images from desktop to site, and inserting them into pages. They’re formatting with wiki code (pbwiki has wysiwyg now, but they’re having fun learning just a wee bit of code, so we’re not using it).

I’m also seeing:

Community: If they run into a good example of something they know other students are covering, they’ll grab a screen shot of it for them. They’ll upload it to the wiki and let the student know it’s there. (I think they’d put it on the page too, but they don’t want to deny the other kid all the fun.)

Problem Solving: Getting pictures of animations they have to use the mouse to interact with has been a puzzle for many of the kids. They eventually figure out the timer in Grab, and work at it (obsessively) until they get just the shot they need.

Enthusiasm: They come find me in the library when they’re supposed to be looking for silent reading material and ask me when we’re having class next. (don’t tell). I am regularly cheered for upon walking into the classroom.

I love that the wiki gives them the ability to publish on the web and work with formatting and not have to mess around with design. No wallpaper, no animations, but they do have to think about how to best present material to a reader.

A couple of things you’ll probably want to consider before embarking on a wiki project of your own…

Do you have a classroom teacher willing to let you try new things and be generous with class time?

Do you have a good topic, something focused? I think ours is an easy fit because we’re talking about the internet & media literacy, but subject matter could be all over the place.

Do you have any good ideas for multi-media? Slideshows, images, movies, drawings, podcasts really liven up any project and a wiki provides an easy platform.

Do you have fun, enthusiastic students? (I bet you do).

Do you have a willingness to collaborate with your students and learn from them? I never have every answer in class, I often have the kids figure it out and teach me once they’ve got it.

We’re still in the early stages, they’re hardly ready for prime time yet. But the process is what I’m excited about, more than the end product. I’ll post links when it (and the upcoming Junior High wiki on sustainability!) are just a little bit further along.