Wikipedia:School and university projects/UC Riverside China and Mao

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, RIVERSIDE, DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY -- “Mao Zedong and the Mao Era” Wikipedia Project

OBJECTIVES

 * 1) Become familiar with recent biographies of Mao, scholarly monographs and journal articles, as well as personal narratives of people who lived during the Mao era.
 * 2) Develop the capacity to evaluate authors’ use of source materials (their evidenciary base) so as to determine whether or not their arguments about highly contentious events and circumstances in Mao’s life and world are valid.
 * 3) Improve upon one or more Wikipedia entries on Mao and/or the Mao era, using newly-acquired knowledge of both primary and secondary sources, and the issues at stake when authors use these materials to build historical narratives on contentious subjects.

RESOURCES
Before you begin, familiarize yourself with Wikipedia protocols. Wikipedia:Tutorial will help you get started with some basic rules and markup language when editing and Wikipedia: The Perfect Article will help you think about ways to improve the article(s).

WEEK 7/8: From May 10 to May 17:
1. Read at least three wiki entries and the talk/discussion pages related to Mao and the Mao era; good starting points would be the following wiki entries and their discussion pages:


 * Mao Zedong
 * Maoism
 * Great Leap Forward
 * Mao: The Unknown Story

Take notes on these entries and include them in your weekly portfolio. Your notes should concentrate on the text of the entry as well as on the ongoing recent discussion page on the entry.

2. Create a username for yourself and a password and learn the basic techniques of Wiki editing using the resources listed above. Begin using the Wikipedia sandbox to experiment with simple editing techniques. By the end of the week you MUST meet with Richard Mehlinger (our project facilitator) during his office hours to make sure that you can perform all the necessary editing functions correctly.

WEEK 8/9: From May 18 through May 25
Create a plan of action for making improvements to one or more Wikipedia entries that you have investigated. You must prepare drafts of all of your suggested changes (a minimum number would be THREE CHANGES that lead to improvement of one or more entries). You MUST link your changes to specific source materials that you have read for the course. DUE DATE: CLASS MEETING DURING WEEK 9; a print-out of the draft material should be inserted in your portfolio.

WEEK 9/10: From May 25 through June 1
1.	After reviewing your proposed three changes together in class on May 25, you will insert your revised changes beginning the evening of May 25 and complete your changes no later than Thursday, May 26. Beginning May 27 (Friday) through May 30 (Monday), you will check the discussion/talk sections of the entries you edited to see how your edits fare. Do others comment on your edits, or remove them? Why? What do they say about your edits, if anything?

2.	Evaluate your experience as part of your Final Project Report (at least three typed doube-spaced pages that will be inserted in your portfolio):


 * What did you insert into Wikipedia and what were the outcomes? Please be detailed.


 * What did you learn about Wikipedia during this assignment?  What did you learn about Mao and/or the Mao era and the idea of scholarly debate from this assignment?


 * How did group discussion, work, and feedback contribute to what you decided to write and insert? How would you differentiate your contribution from that of your group collaborators?


 * How did you feel about this project overall and what suggestions do you have for further improvement?

PARTICIPANTS

 * COURSE PROJECT INSTRUCTOR: User:Chinagirl62
 * COURSE PROJECT FACILITATOR: User:TallNapoleon
 * User:Wolfpacktrojan
 * User:bpedr002
 * User:Mrmafix