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Martha Groom, a professor at the University of Washington-Bothell, assigned her students the task of creating Wikipedia articles in place of a standard term paper. Rather than allow or restrict her students from using Wikipedia as a source, she required her students to create for the controversial encyclopedia.
The experiment had mixed results, but I presume that others will follow or try something similar. You can read the article titled, Prof replaces term papers with Wikipedia contributions, suffering ensures at Ars Technica.
Article validity is a concern voiced by many, including an array of teachers, theorists, and politicians that are concerned about the accuracy of developing articles that are never absolute or authored by individuals with “proper” credentials.
The openness of Wikipedia makes creating articles of knowledge an intensely dialogic phenomenon, doing away with the idea of knowledge as emanating from single, authoritative, closed source, and instead embracing the idea of knowledge as being open, collective, relational, and always changing. Contributors, authors, or Wikipedians have different views and experiences, and contribute to articles that range from terrorism to abortion.
Where else are you going to find something like this? While Wikipedia articles vary in quality, I am particularly interested in their evolution—the dialogue that emerges among contributors; edits made, reverted, and critiqued. “Truth” seekers may steer away from Wikipedia, but I am skeptical of any piece of knowledge that claims to be absolute, closed to new interpretations and critique.
Attempts to control knowledge—restricting who has access and who can make contributions to it- restricts creativity and exploring different ways of thinking. Wikipedia continues and challenges Enlightenment thinking; it democratizes knowledge, and in doing so challenges the traditional producer/consumer relationship by allowing those with and without “proper” credentials to participate in its creation.
Where else are you going to find something like this? While Wikipedia articles vary in quality, I am particularly interested in their evolution – the dialogue that emerges among contributors; edits made, reverted, and critiqued. “Truth” seekers may steer away from Wikipedia, but I am skeptical of any piece of knowledge that suggests that no more questions should be asked. As I see it, attempts to control knowledge –restricting who has access and who can make contributions to it- limits the possibility of creating new ways of thinking and doing. Wikipedia continues and challenges Enlightenment thinking; it democratizes knowledge, but in doing so challenges the traditional producer/consumer relationship by allowing those with and without “proper” credentials to participate.
Follow me along as I write about my past, present, and future experiences while embracing an openness towards difference. And don’t forget to subscribe by EMAIL or RSS!
– Jason Simon think open, think different