Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign/New Media, Culture and Society (Spring 2016)

Despite persistent utopian promises that ever faster and “smarter” computing will make our lives better and easier, technology remains influenced by social and cultural practices at every level. From the infrastructural to the intimate, technology is designed with specific audiences and aims. In this course, you will learn how to interpret how these messages about technology are communicated in and through media. This means that you will be asked to consider not only what is represented in the media texts that we will review throughout this semester, you will also learn how to interpret media forms as technology embedded in culture and society.

Week 1

 * Overview of the course
 * Introduction to how Wikipedia will be used in the course
 * Understanding Wikipedia as a community, we'll discuss its expectations and etiquette.

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Handout: Editing Wikipedia


 * Complete the online training for students. During this training, you will make edits in a sandbox and learn the basic rules of Wikipedia.

Week 2

 * Review pages 4-7 of the Evaluating Wikipedia brochure. This will give you a good, brief overview of what to look for in other articles, and what other people will look for in your own.
 * Evaluate an existing Wikipedia article related to the class, and leave suggestions for improving it on the article's talk page.
 * A few questions to consider (don't feel limited to these):
 * Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference?
 * Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you?
 * Is the article neutral? Are there any claims, or frames, that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
 * Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?
 * Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
 * Check a few citations. Do the links work? Is there any close paraphrasing or plagiarism in the article?
 * Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added?

Resources: Evaluating Wikipedia, [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Using_talk_pages.pdf Using Talk Pages ]

Week 3

 * Add 1–2 sentences of new information, backed up with a citation to an appropriate source, to a Wikipedia article related to the class.

Week 4

 * Choose one article, identify ways in which you can improve and correct its language and grammar, and make the appropriate changes. (You do not need to alter the article's content.)