Teaching with Wikipedia and other Wikimedia Foundation wikis

Track: Workshops and Panels
Authors: Piotr Konieczny

Abstract
Wikipedia and other wikis operated by the Wikimedia Foundation
are finding increasing applications in teaching and learning. This workshop will demonstrate how teachers from academia and beyond can use those wikis in their courses. Wikipedia can be used for various assignments: for example, students can be asked to reference an unreferenced article or create a completely new one. Students can also work on creating a free textbook on Wikibooks, learn about journalism on Wikinews or engage in variety of media-related projects on Commons. In doing so, students will see that writing an article and related assignments are not a 'tedious assignment' but activities that millions do 'for fun'. They will also gain a deeper understanding of what Wikipedia is, and how (un)reliable it can be. They and the course leaders are assisted by a lively, real world community. Last, but not least, their work will also benefit – and be improved upon – by the entire world.

Download the slides:
1) http://tiny.cc/wikisymteach (.odp format - if you cannot open this, read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.odp) 2) .ppt version - uploaded to wikisym wiki, see download link below