Reflecting on Issues of Wikipedia Use
At the SHARP conference on book history, I discussed the idea of having students reflect on issues associated with Wikipedia to reflect on the whole process of engaging in digital writing. (For the PowerPoint presentation: Download file). For a handout: Download file
For this idea, I drew on Henry Jenkins presentation to the National Media Education conference, What Wikipedia Can Teach Us About The New Media Literacies (Part One) http://www.henryjenkins.org/2007/06/what_wikipedia_can_teach_us_ab.html#more
and Part Two http://www.henryjenkins.org/2007/06/what_wikipedia_can_teach_us_ab_1.html#more
Jenkins notes that through grappling with issues of genre definition (What is Wikipedia?), audience, verifiability, validity, editorial review, etc., students are learning to address and acquire information literacies. For example, in studying changes made in an entry, students can note how supporting evidence for a claim was added to enhance the validity of that claim.