Rotramel, Ariella

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DigitalCommons@Connecticut College

Connecticut CollegeDigital Commons @ Connecticut CollegeGender and Women's Studies Faculty Publications Gender and Women's Studies Department3-2-2016Adding Voices to Scholarship: Wikipedia EditingAriella RotramelConnecticut College, arotrame@conncoll.eduFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/gwsfacpubThis Blog Post is brought to you for free and open access by the Gender and Women's Studies Department at Digital Commons @ ConnecticutCollege. It has been accepted for inclusion in Gender and Women's Studies Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @Connecticut College. For more information, please contact bpancier@conncoll.edu.The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the author.Recommended CitationRotramel, Ariella, "Adding Voices to Scholarship: Wikipedia Editing" (2016). Gender and Women's Studies Faculty Publications. 3.http://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/gwsfacpub/33/23/2016 Adding Voices to Scholarship: Wikipedia Editing – Engagehttps://teachtechconncoll.wordpress.com/2016/03/02/adding-voices-to-scholarship-wikipedia-editing/ 1/3EngageTeaching with Technology @ Connecticut CollegeAdding Voices to Scholarship: Wikipedia Editing  March 2, 2016March 2, 2016   Ariella RotramelI developed my Fall 2015 Feminist Theory course with metaliteracy as a learning objective (https://metaliteracy.org/learning-objectives/) to assist students in studying theory in context.  Metaliteracy is a framework that promotes critical thinking andcollaboration in a digital age (Mackey & Jacobson (http://crl.acrl.org/content/72/1/62.full.pdf+html)).  The focus onmetaliteracy helped challenge students’ common understandings of theory as distanced from empirical research and everydaylife, and reinforced an understanding of research and academic writing as an iterative process.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sister_Outsider)The Wikipedia assignment that I used for the ﬁrst two months of class provided a means of working with students to translatetheoretical insights into accessible knowledge.  Each student created a new entry for Wikipedia on a topic related to gender andwomen’s studies.  Students’ ﬁrsthand experience with creating knowledge for a general audience provided an opportunity tostruggle with questions of representation that otherwise they would have engaged largely as spectators rather than participants. The project developed out of my interest in connecting with ongoing projects that seek to address the problem of gender andracial inequality in Wikipedia as there continues to be a signiﬁcant imbalance in participation and content (see Gender bias onWikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_bias_on_Wikipedia)).  Moreover, the 2015 National Women’s StudiesAssociation Wikipedia Initiative (http://www.nwsa.org/wikiedu) that connects Gender and Women’s Studies classes with WikiEducation Foundation (https://wikiedu.org/teach-with-wikipedia/) staff provided further materials and support to carry outthis assignment.I took a scaffolded approach to the assignment.  Students started reading about Wikipedia through a critical perspective, includingissues such as trolling and bias.  We took a paced approach in completing the wiki training and beginning to add content (the classWiki Dashboard(https://dashboard.wikiedu.org/courses/Connecticut_College/Advanced_Readings_in_Feminist_Theory_(Fall_2015)/overview)shows how the training was scaffolded and organized). Next time, I plan to integrate the discussion of bias with an in-class editingsession to break the ice more efﬁciently. We also connected with our Wiki Education Foundation content expert, Adam Hyland,via Google Hangouts midway through the assignment, and next time we will introduce collaborators earlier to help students put aface to the person and become more comfortable reaching out about speciﬁc questions they have around their Wikipedia work.Students appreciated having the scaffolded approach to the assignment that allowed them to pace themselves and revise theirwork.  Finally, they gained much from presenting their work in a poster session supported by the Academic Resource Center asthey received direct feedback from visitors and saw ﬁrsthand interest in their work, adding an face-to-face interaction that ismissing from online work itself.3/23/2016 Adding Voices to Scholarship: Wikipedia Editing – Engagehttps://teachtechconncoll.wordpress.com/2016/03/02/adding-voices-to-scholarship-wikipedia-editing/ 2/3“it is one thing to be looking at all this information for one’s own personal beneﬁt and use… it is a completely different thing to be able tonot only use this information for one’s own personal sake, but also share it with other individuals that are seeking information.” – studentreﬂectionStudents’ reﬂection essays included many claims that the project did indeed help them understand theory as part of feministknowledge production.  One student reported that the project was “a direct way to overcome the lack of connection betweentheory and praxis” as they created information for a general audience.  In addition, students appreciated and found a sense ofempowerment by creating content that will be widely shared and used. Students sharpened their research skills, and in somecases contacted individuals involved in the topics they wrote about such as The Kilroys(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kilroys%27_List), a theater gender parity group and the activists behind the#ShoutYourAbortion (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shout_Your_Abortion) hashtag.  This shift from consumption to synthesisand distribution of information helped demystify one key source of information online for students.  (https://teachtechconncoll.ﬁles.wordpress.com/2016/03/sisteroutsiderstats.jpg)Some entries have received quite a bit of trafﬁc. The entry for Sister Outsider (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sister_Outsider), Audre Lorde’s well-cited essay collection, hasreceived 2,293 visits (25/day) over the past 90 days (see graph to left).  Previously, there had not been an entry for the nationalGreen Dot Bystander Intervention (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Dot_Bystander_Intervention) program that is a corecomponent of Connecticut College’s violence prevention work (https://www.conncoll.edu/campus-life/sexual-assault-prevention-and-advocacy/green-dot/).  A student created an entry and the site has received 285 visits (3/day) over the past 90days, and basic information about the program is now accessible to Wikipedia users.  In conclusion, while there are always someglitches and complications in carrying out an assignment like this one, it is evident from the semester and teaching evaluationsthat it was worth the effort.  Across the board, students gained a deeper understanding of knowledge creation and representationthrough this hands on experience.  Active & Project Based Learning, Literacies, Research Process, Research SkillsOne thought on “Adding Voices to Scholarship: Wikipedia Editing”1. ANA CAMPOS-HOLLAND, PHDAbout these ads (https://wordpress.com/about­these­ads/)3/23/2016 Adding Voices to Scholarship: Wikipedia Editing – Engagehttps://teachtechconncoll.wordpress.com/2016/03/02/adding-voices-to-scholarship-wikipedia-editing/ 3/3March 2, 2016 / 2:10 pmExcellent pedagogical innovation!  ReplyBlog at WordPress.com. | The Plane Theme.

Adding Voices to Scholarship: Wikipedia Editing

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Adding Voices to Scholarship: Wikipedia Editing

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