Kristina M. De Voe and Adrienne Shaw

“ We unpack the importance of existing infrastructures, such as edit-a-thons and the WikiEdu dashboard, to support bringing Wikipedia assignments into the classroom. We also explore how we worked to connect course content to the renewable assignments and brought larger discussions of representation and community on Wikipedia into the classroom and assignments. Finally, we outline the lessons we learned through this collaboration. In sum, scaffolded projects allowed students to practice their contributions to Wikipedia in a supportive space and fostered critical engagement with course content. ”

“ Renewable assignments allow students to “contribute to the knowledge commons, not just consume it, in meaningful and lasting ways . . . shap [ing] the world as they encounter it” (DeRosa & Jhangiani, 2017, p. 9) . Open pedagogy focuses on open teaching, open content, and having student work and interactions brought into the public sphere. ”

“ But, another student noted, “Depending on the technology (internet connection and a reliable PC) and sources we have access to, it affects the information we add to the article, and that in turn affects what information the public gets access to.” The Wikipedia project made tangible lessons about the importance of understanding the cultural, material, and human infrastructures of digital technologies and critically addressing questions of representation and access to Internet-based media and communication technologies. ”

“ In this course, editing and talking about Wikipedia intersected with several course themes, and so it made sense to develop this into a semester-long project. Students selected an existing article relevant to the course to contribute to or identified a topic/person relevant to the course in which to create a new Wikipedia article. is longer project also made it easier to check students’ progress week by week and allowed time for students to review their peers’ drafted contributions in the WikiEdu sandbox (along with instructor feedback) before moving their edits to “Live” Wikipedia. ”

“ As Bali (2017) suggested, it has an ethos of sharing and a social justice orientation. is emphasis on equitable participation in knowledge creation, centered around affordability, exemplifies the ways in which critical information literacy seeks to intervene upon information systems of oppression. Wikipedia offers an ideal site of praxis for critical information literacy and open pedagogy to intersect, demonstrating to students how knowledge is constructed and made accessible in open systems (Fields & Harper, 2020) . ”

“ Or, as Freire (2003) wrote, “To surmount the situation of oppression, people must first critically recognize its causes, so that through transforming action they can create a new situation, one which makes possible the pursuit of a fuller humanity” (Freire [1970] , p. 47) . ”

“ WikiEdu’s dashboard allowed us to structure training modules, exercises, discussion questions, and assignments within a timeline so that students could work their way through learning Wikipedia policies, how the site works, and how to use the editor functions. e dashboard also permitted students to create sandboxes where they could draft edits and get peer and faculty feedback on them before migrating them to “Live” Wikipedia articles during the edit-a-thon. ”

“ Art+Feminism’s ambassador network and online event kits—complete with organizing how-to guides, CC-licensed promotional materials, safe/brave space policies, lesson plans, video tutorials, training slide decks—have ensured that GLAM staff are supported and prepared to host edit-a-thons that foster communities of possibility. ”

“ The WikiEdu trainings were reorganized for spring 2020 so that students identified the article they were going to edit/create earlier in the semester. For students contributing to existing articles, they did an evaluation exercise, identifying the changes they would make before finalizing that choice. Students creating new articles analyzed similar existing articles, identifying what they would need to do to make a good one. ”

“ Opening up information literacy: Empowering students through open pedagogy. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Innovative Pedagogy, 2 (1) . https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/sotl_ip/vol2/iss1/1.
Freire, P. (2003) . Pedagogy of the oppressed (30th anniversary ed.) . Continuum. (Original work published 1970) .
Gauthier, M., & Sawchuk, K. (2017) . Not notable enough: Feminism and expertise in Wikipedia. Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 14 (4) , 385–402.
Giroux, H. A. (1988) . Teachers as intellectuals: Toward a critical pedagogy of learning. ”