The Assignment

The assignment consists of two phases, each graded separately:

Phase 1: Students choose a topic related to history that either doesn’t have a substantial article already written about it, or a topic that is listed on the history stubs page on Wikipedia. Then, they research the topic and contribute ~500 words to the article. The article must include footnotes, and reference at least two published books, two external websites, and link to at least two other Wikipedia pages. Students must use proper formatting for footnotes, headings, lists, links and other content per Wikipedia formatting guidelines. They must also create a user account, and log in with that user account when editing. If an article’s history doesn’t include the user name they sent to me at the beginning of the semester, they don’t get credit. No exceptions.

Phase 2: After publishing, students must watch the article, see if anyone contributes or changes their article, and if so connect with these users. The goal here is to improve the article, either with others users or individually. If their article is flagged for deletion, students must work to make sure the article isn’t deleted. But, regardless of outcome, students must write a ~500 word reflection on what happened to their article, and how their ideas about Wikipedia had changed as a result of the article.

Notes on Process

Topics

Choosing a topic is fairly straight-forward. I always encourage students to find a topic that interests them, that’s relevant to their major, their job, or even hobbies. Students have written about various historical topics related to psychology, sociology, engineering, sports, art, and theater, to name a few. If students can’t come up with a topic, point them to the stubs page. There are thousands of stub articles to choose from, including United States history, history of science, and military history. All topics have to be approved by me before continuing the assignment. I usually require topics related to U.S. history because that’s my primary field of study, and will approve topics if I think there’s enough secondary and tertiary sources available to allow for an adequate article.

Research

The research process is, more or less, the same kind of research process you’d expect when assigning a short term paper. We discuss how to find resources on particular topics, how to brainstorm, create outlines, et cetera. I introduce students to the librarian on staff who’s relevant to their field of study or topic. (Often, this is the first time students are introduced to these very valuable folks.) Wikipedia also has policies about citation, so I make sure students read the policy on citing sources and verifiability. Additionally, I discuss uses of different kinds of sources, and Wikipedia’s preference for secondary and tertiary sources over primary sources. Students articles must not be original research.

Writing and Formatting

Probably the trickiest part of the assignment is showing students how to write for Wikipedia, particularly the way Wikipedia articles are formatted. We take one class period and review “How to Edit a Wikipedia Article,” particularly the formatting section. There’s a great tutorial and sandbox where students can practice formatting before working on their articles. I demonstrate on-screen how to do different kinds of formatting: footnotes, headings, unordred lists, ordered lists, internal and external links, and inserting an image. There is a useful cheatsheet that details formatting methods for specific content elements.

Publishing and Participating

Like I said earlier, the assignment doesn’t end once the article is published. After they publish the article, they must watch and participate in any change that takes place to their article, for good or ill. I show them specifically two sections of their article to watch:

• History page – I encourage students not to revert things immediately, but to take the time to look at changes, determine if they help or hurt the article, and take the appropriate action.
• Talk page – This is where community members talk about the article in question, offering suggestions for improvement or declaring reasons that the article is irrelevant and show be deleted. Its here that students have to defend their articles, or learn from other Wikipedians about how to improve their articles.

Not infrequently, someone’s article will be recommended for deletion, or their changes reverted. In these cases I show students how to interact with Wikipedia admins, review their deletion policy and the process by which they do deletion review. I’ve had several students’ articles get recommended for deletion, and the students justified their articles well enough to save them.

Why Assign a Wikipedia Article?

I have several reasons why I ask students to write an article for Wikipedia:

• Learn how to do research: A no-brainer here. The assignment involves some basic research and writing skills, a modest but substantial amount for a 100-level survey course.
• Demystify Wikipedia: Most people have preconceptions about Wikipedia, but very little experience actually reading AND writing an Wikipedia article. Fewer people have experience communicating with other Wikipedia users, particularly admins and editors. This, in turn, influences how they interact with others on various social sites and services. Moreover, students learn that not just anything can be published on Wikipedia, there are rules and policies in place for the content that gets to stay on Wikipedia.
• Learn the difference between fact-only writing and analytical writing: Most of my students have a difficult time understanding how to make an argument, how to differentiate between fact-based “reporting” and analysis. By actually being forced to write a “just the facts” report, they have been able to see the difference between the two.

As I said earlier, this assignment is consistently one of my most successful assignments. Students find a topic they’re interested in, research it, learn how to write for different audiences, learn how to use Wikipedia more efficiently, and understand when its good to use Wikipedia and when its not. Furthermore, they get experience with community and collaborative writing, and can take those skills with them and use them long after the course is finished. It does take a bit of work on my part, to make sure students understand the assignment and the technology involved, but in my opinion its completely worth the effort. Its certainly much more meaningful to have students contribute to a larger, more public body of knowledge than to write a term paper for me that will get thrown away at the end of the semester. If this assignment can produce some good articles on Wikipedia, and gets students talking to others and learning outside of class, I consider it a success.

1. Make sure students graduate as skilled, thoughtful consumers and producers of digital media

Several smaller goals fit into this:

• Learn how to search – Read Bill Turkel’s blog. If you’re not convinced search is important, READ IT AGAIN. There is more to search than Google, and learning how various searches work—and, more importantly, how to make search for work you—is an incredibly valuable skillset beyond college.
• Learn how to manage information flow – For better or for worse, the information age is in overdrive, and all is in flux (thanks again, Bill). But there are tools and services to help you manage that flow, and it should be one of the goals of any university to help students learn how to manage that information. If we want to encourage students to expand their learning beyond the classroom (and I really think we should), then universities need to prepare students for managing the mass of information that comes with it.
• Learn how to produce meaningful, well-composed content and share it with others – Rob Wall argues that, in the 21st century, “creativity is the new technology.” Its incredible to think of the various ways people can produce and share content for equally various purposes. Anyone with an internet connection can sign up for a weblog right now, and begin producing and sharing content, right now. Anyone with an internet connection can produce and share data visualizations. Anyone with a computer and webcam can record and share video. Anyone who can search the web can find audio content, and create a podcast with it. With all of this opportunity for new ways to create narrative and share ideas comes a real need for universities to teach students new ways to compose those narratives and share those ideas.
• Learn how to critique content and methodology – Along with providing the ability to produce content in a variety of media, universities must provide the tools and skills to help students critique content, and discern the effectiveness and usefulness of particular technologies and media. One of the tenants of Mason’s PhD in History and New Media program is “critical optimism”. So, while we are optimistic about the changes that new media can bring to the practice of history, we’re critical about the specific methods that particular media employ. This is an approach that, I think, is already common in most classrooms. In my history course, I teach students how to critically read primary and secondary sources, and how to discern other methodological approaches to a particular issue. These skills are equally important—if not more important—when using and producing digital media.

2. Use free, open-source, and/or extensible tools whenever possible, and encourage faculty, staff, and students to do the same.

Universities spend countless millions on closed, proprietary systems like Blackboard and WebCT, systems that are very overbearing in their pedagogical approaches. In contrast, signing up for a weblog like WordPress is free (and there are plenty of other free options), and the uses for blogs in classes are limitless. While a little more difficult for the average instructor, Moodle is a free, open-source alternative to other learning management systems, and boasts a significant developer community contributing plugins and modules for extended functionality. There’s more this, though, than learning management systems: web browsers, word processing, screencasting, image editing, audio/video editing, to name a few. The specific tool, of course, should be chosen based on need and goals, but opting for extensible, open-source, and free alternatives will save universities money, provide more flexibility to instructors, and encourage the university community to do with software what it already tries to do with teaching and research: Contribute knowledge and resources back to the world.

3. Foster academic use of technologies that breaks down boundaries of the classroom, and the university as a whole.

As academic departments face budget cuts and lose staff positions if their enrollments are down, this may be the most difficult, but I think the most potentially beneficial, of all the goals. At the American Historical Association’s annual meeting in January, I presented on how I use technology to break down barriers to learning in my courses. Mills Kelly has written extensively on the future of the course, and argues that positive change in learning on university campuses will happen when students take individual responsibility for their own learning. Mills is particularly keen on the ideas of an iTunes-like class, where students can choose specific bits and pieces in a course that interests them. Others have spoken of the networked learner, and of learning environments that are not isolated from the rest of the world, but rather expand through a bottom-up approach. While I really like the potential for learning in a world without walls, I think there are some uses for the “artificial community” that is the classroom; Namely, that courses bring together people who would otherwise not talk to each other, and potentially allow for more diversity in perspectives. Learning based purely on social networking brings with it the danger of learning only inside the enclaves we create for ourselves based solely on who/what we like or who/what we’re comfortable with. But I think a balance can be struck, and I think universities should employ academic technologies to find and encourage that balance between classroom and independent learning.

So, there are at least three goals I think academic institutions should try to achieve regarding academic technology. Its certain good food for thought, and I’ll continue thinking about these goals for my own teaching and research. I imagine, though, that there are plenty more goals to add. So, lets help Jeff out. What would your academic technology goals be?

Instructor as Role Model

I think any instructor using technology, in the class or out, should think of themselves as a role model for how those technologies can be used for responsible, beneficial goals. One way I do this is to be completely transparent with students regarding my use of technology. I provide links to my blog, my Twitter account, my Flickr account, my YouTube and Vimeo users, my Facebook page, and my instant messenger screennames. I encourage them to follow me, and contact me through any of these methods. I set up rules for contacting me, though, which are followed 99.9% of the time, and that 0.1% is not enough of a problem for me to change my transparency. I also show students how I’ve used my blog, Twitter feed, and other accounts to build a professional network and share information. While others warn about the ill effects of putting too much of yourself online (which can be true), I try to show students how I use technology to expand my opportunities, not limit them. Overall, I’ve had positive feedback from students about my openness. I think that I use technology and social media responsibly (though I could work on the efficiency part). Setting an example that students can follow is important if we want those students to be more critical about their use of technology.

Instructor as Tech Support

When utilizing social media and technology in my courses, I’ve found myself serving as the primary tech support person when students run into trouble. With my tech background, I’m comfortable with this, but I suspect a lot of teachers are not. Explaining the technical aspects of blogging, wikis, RSS, YouTube, and Flickr can take up time spent on other things in class and out, but I think its very important to take on this role. In a lot of cases, support involves me showing students how to find answers to their questions on the Web, on support forums, or other resources. In other cases, support involves me taking 5-10 minutes at the end of class to explain how a particular technology works. While this can be TONS of work, serving as tech support has, I think, given my students more confidence in my ability to teach with and use technology (going back to Instructor as Role Model).

For example, I have an assignment that asks students to research and write an article on Wikipedia. Its not a big article (~500 words), but the assignment does ask a lot from students: Learn how to do proper formatting for Wikipedia, research an article, and try as hard as they can to ensure their article isn’t vandalized or deleted AND encourage other users to contribute to the article. Learning these things requires a lot of my time for tech support: Explain how Wikipedia works, how to format footnotes, headings, et cetera, and how to find guidelines to follow if a student’s article is up for deletion. This is not the kind of task I’d ask general University tech support, because the assignment is as much about learning these technical things as it is learning about collaborative writing and research. The fact that I can take on a role of tech support helps make the assignment successful.

Instructor as Cheerleader

Out of the three, I think the role of Instructor as Cheerleader is the most important. I really think that there’s a lack of cheerleading or positive reinforcement in higher education in general,  particularly when trying to teach students to use new kinds of technology or social media. At the beginning of the semester, usually after the first class when I’ve introduced all the things we’ll be doing with computers, I get a few emails from students saying something to the effect that “I’m not good with all this computer stuff.” And they probably aren’t; I’m not convinced that this generation, like previous generations, is that tech savvy. But I do think every student I have is capable of becoming more proficient with technology than before they entered my class, and can learn how to use the technology they’re exposed to every day in new, meaningful, efficient ways.

The prospect of editing a Wikipedia article, to go back to that example, is a strange (and sometimes frightening) proposition for my students. Learning how to format footnotes in Wikipedia, insert images, write the proper code for headings and bulleted lists can be daunting to many, let alone connecting with a few dozen completely unknown Wikipedians to discuss the merits of their articles as some face deletion. Encouragement and genuine interest in the success of each students project is imperative, as is patience. There may be some hand-holding involved as students negotiate with sometime rude Wikipedia admins (I’ve done this) or spending some extra time during office hours explaining wiki formatting while encouraging student that they are in fact smart enough to do all this computer stuff (I’ve also done this). Pointing out successes in class, even if its as simple as successfully inserting a YouTube clip into a blog post, goes a long way to get students vested in the assignments and class as a whole.

Results

All of these roles help me accomplish one of my goals in class: Help my students become more savvy, more responsible consumers and producers of media and technology. I think trading of some time covering some particular historical topic to teach students how to extend learning beyond my classroom is more than worth it. In the end, I get more students interested in exploring history and help shape more responsible social technology users. Even if I only influence a handful of students, I’ll consider my class a success.

I’m still going to think about these roles, refine them, and perhaps come up with more as my teaching evolves. I probably missed a few roles that you think are important, or your courses may be different enough to warrant different roles when using technology in class. What others have you acquired while teaching with technology? What are the drawbacks and merits of them?

• Mills uses blogs instead of course management systems because its something he can set up, modify, and control. He doesn’t have to rely on university tech support, or work through the university. Was dissatisfied with systems like Blackboard and WebCT because the interfaces are clunky, have lots of features he didn’t need/use.
• After switching to blogs, Mills was surprised that students actually wrote more on blogs than on forums in WebCT. Students told him this was because blogging appealed to them more; it was something they may actually use or do outside of class.
• Forums = Socratic model. Blogs = Conversational model. With forums, Mills would ask a question, and students would respond. With blogs, students took more initiative to respond on their own, ask their own questions, approach the topic in their own way.
• Mills uses blogs to get students prepared prior to class, for the work they’ll do in class. So, once class starts he can drop straight into conversation by pointing out posts from students. Breaks the ice, and gets conversation in class going much easier.
• What doesn’t work: 1) Students don’t really take off with blogs as much as he’d like, to make it “their” space to explore and do whatever they want with. Wants more spontaneous participation. 2) Students don’t like to critique other students’ work. They’re reluctant to criticize other students.
• Add a link to your own blog to the course website. Students will read it, because some students are interested in what professors think or are working on. Gives students access to the professor that’s different than in the classroom, and shows them that professors are thinking about topics outside the classroom.