Submissions/Research Training Curriculum Support

This is a rejected submission for Wikimania 2012.

Submission no.

156

Title of the submission: Research Training and Curriculum Support using Wikipedia

Type of submission (workshop, tutorial, panel, presentation): Presentation

Author of the submission: Kerry Kilner

E-mail address: kerry.kilner@gmail.com

Username: KteachK

Country of origin: Australia

Affiliation, if any (organization, company etc.): The University of Queensland

Personal homepage or blog: http://www.emsah.uq.edu.au/?page=150044

Abstract (at least 300 words to describe your proposal): This proposal has two aims: 1) the presentation of my own use of Wikipedia in an educational setting; and, 2) having an opportunity to meet with other educators and researchers who are working with Wikimedia tools for the delivery of curriculum content in underdeveloped countries. The Research Methods course in the school of English, Media Studies and Art History at The University of Queensland, Australia, is a cross-school final year course in the Bachelor of Arts that has recently been redesigned to incorporate a high level of digital resource use and a major focus on building digital literacies. The major piece of assessment in the Research Methods course, which is the culmination of a semester-long project, is the creation of a Wikipedia article on an Australian subject that is under-represented or unrepresented in Wikipedia. The assumption that students are savvy web users is questionable when it comes to scholarly research practice or even in working within digital environments so the course exposes students to the various ways that contemporary research in the humanities is undertaken. The rise of the discipline of Digital Humanities is influential on the course as is the ethos and principles of the open source, open access and free knowledge movements. In order to build digital literacy, students are given guidance on becoming discerning users of web-based resources and of the translation of traditional research practice into digital environments. The course gives students the experience of traditional research practices by working with original archival and manuscript material held in the University of Queensland Library’s rich Australian collection where they are immersed in the stories and lives of writers, political organisations or other significant cultural figures. The incorporation of Wikipedia as the outcome of their semester's work allows for the merging of traditional practices of archives-based research with documentary analysis, information synthesis and knowledge building, with the ultimate goal of producing a publicly available, high quality article of which the students can be proud. Working with Wikipedia is a great way for students to develop research and communication skills while participating in a community that is about increasing access to knowledge on a global scale. The students taking the Research Methods course have enthusiastically embraced the project even though they find working within Wikipedia quite a challenge and much harder than they had been led to believe. Their previous experience of using Wikipedia as a guilt-ridden knowledge-seeking activity which they needed to hide from their other lecturers is turned on its head in this course. They begin to see the value of community produced knowledge and get a better understanding of the complexity of the Wikipedia enterprize and its standing in the GLAM sector and elsewhere. I am one of only a few Australian academics, certainly in the Arts, who openly incorporate Wikipedia in my teaching and research practice and promote its use as an educational tool. As a keen supporter of the Wikipedia enterprize (albeit with less time available to participate than I would like) I am keen to come to Wikimania 2012 in order to meet other educators using Wikipedia and to speak about my own very positive experience. I am also keen to learn more about how it might be used as a mechanism for the delivery of curriculum content in schools in developing or less advantaged countries. I have recently begun working with the Director of an under-resourced K-12 school in the Dominican Republic who is keen to use Wikipedia to assist with delivering targeted educational content to teachers and students in that school. We aim to collaborate on this project to develop an exemplar where the Wikimedia resources can be used to suit a defined curriculum. I hope that attending Wikimania will help me join a network of other educators with similar aims.

Track: WikiCulture and Community; Research, Analysis, and Education

Length of presentation/talk: 25 Minutes

Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?: I am not sure. I will be probably be able to receive some support from my work if I am presenting.

Slides or further information (optional)

Special request as to time of presentations

KteachK (talk) 01:57, 19 March 2012 (UTC)KteachK[reply]

Interested attendees

If you are interested in attending this session, please sign with your username below. This will help reviewers to decide which sessions are of high interest. Sign with four tildes. (~~~~).

Add your username here.