Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/University of Chicago/Censorship and Information Control During Information Revolutions (Autumn)

This course examines how new information technologies trigger innovations in censorship and information control, by comparing the print revolution after 1450 to the current digital revolution. Students will research topics from the Inquisition and Reformation censorship, to colonial censorship, modern internet censorship, the USSR, China, the modern Middle East, wartime censorship, censorship of comic books, New Zealand's censorship, etc.

Week 2
Welcome to your Wikipedia assignment's course timeline. This page guides you through the steps you'll need to complete for your Wikipedia assignment, with links to training modules and your classmates' work spaces.

Your course has been assigned a Wikipedia Expert. You can reach them through the Get Help button at the top of this page.

Resources:


 * Editing Wikipedia, pages 1–5
 * Evaluating Wikipedia

Create an account and join this course page, using the enrollment link your instructor sent you. (Because of Wikipedia's technical restraints, you may receive a message that you cannot create an account. To resolve this, please try again off campus or the next day.)

This week, everyone should have a Wikipedia account.

Exercise
Evaluate an article

Thinking about sources and plagiarism; after evaluating an article, and looking at several others, reflect on the sources Wikipedia does and doesn't allow, why a &quot;tertiary&quot; source has such restrictions, the positive and negative consequences of this, and how you expect it to affect your own work on Wikipedia.

Exercise
Choose a topic

Resource: Editing Wikipedia, page 6

What's a content gap? On the main page, Wikipedia has a &quot;random article&quot; link which takes you to a random article. Use that link twenty (or more) times, to see what kinds of pages you come to at random, and what kinds you don't. What topics/regions/countries/issues seem over-represented or under-represented?  What kinds of pages tend to have lots of information, or very little? Write a short reflection on what kinds of content are more or less represented on Wikipedia, why that might be, and how that knowledge can guide us as we add to Wikipedia, aiming to correct, not continue, its gaps.

Exercise
Add a citation

Finalize your topic / Find your sources

Reach out to your Wikipedia Expert if you have questions using the Get Help button at the top of this page.

Resource: Editing Wikipedia, pages 7–9

Biographies

Books

Cultural Anthropology

Films

History

LGBT+ Studies

Political Science

Women's Studies

Everyone has begun writing their article drafts.

Week 6
All students have produced a substantive draft of their additions to their selected Wikipedia pages and added that draft to their sandbox in preparation for peer reviews next week.

Week 7
Every student has finished reviewing their assigned articles, making sure that every article has been reviewed.

You probably have some feedback from other students and possibly other Wikipedians. Consider their suggestions, decide whether it makes your work more accurate and complete, and edit your draft to make those changes.

Resources:


 * Editing Wikipedia, pages 12 and 14
 * Reach out to your Wikipedia Expert if you have any questions.

Now that you've improved your draft based on others' feedback, it's time to move your work live - to the &quot;mainspace.&quot;

Resource: Editing Wikipedia, page 13

Exercise
Add links to your article

Now's the time to revisit your text and refine your work. You may do more research and find missing information; rewrite the lead section to represent all major points; reorganize the text to communicate the information better; or add images and other media.

Week 8
Continue to expand and improve your work, and format your article to match Wikipedia's tone and standards. Remember to contact your Wikipedia Expert at any time if you need further help!

Everyone should have finished all of the work they'll do on Wikipedia, and be ready for grading.

It's the penultimate week to develop your article.


 * Read Editing Wikipedia page 15 to review a final check-list before completing your assignment.
 * Don't forget that you can ask for help from your Wikipedia Expert at any time!

Week 9
Guiding questions

Make sure your essay answers all the questions listed in the module above. Try and aim for about three double-spaced pages. Final papers should be, minimum, not including headers, two full double-spaced pages. Be sure to follow all formatting guidelines listed in the course syllabus.

Final reflective essays can be submitted to John-Paul via email (JPHeil@undefineduchicago.edu).

Everyone should have finished all the work they'll do on Wikipedia, and be ready for grading.