Why Not Wikipedia: Appropriate Uses of Online Resources

Why NotWikipedia?Appropriate Uses of Online Resources

OELMA Annual Conference - October 14, 2011Don Boozer, KnowItNow24x7 Coordinator

www.knowitnow.org

One of INFOhio’s “21 Essential Things”learningcommons.infohio.org

One of INFOhio’s “21 Essential Things”learningcommons.infohio.org

www.knowitnow.org

!

Why Not Wikipedia?

What is Wikipedia?

What are appropriate uses of it?

What about other online resources?

How can I get involved?

What is Wikipedia?

“a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation.”

What is Wikipedia?

•Free•Web-based•Collaborative•Multilingual•Non-profit

www.wikimedia.org

The “Googleplex”

www.wikimedia.org

www.wikimedia.org

www.wikimedia.org

www.wikimedia.org

“Wikipedia is not evil.”

Wikipedia is a tool.

“Anyone can edit anything!”

Case in point… Tecumseh

Added July 6, 2010, at 6:27pm

Deleted July 6, 2010, at 6:30pm

(→Tecumseh in popular culture: self promotional - not third party coverage)

Added July 11, 2010, 3:13pm

By the numbers…

• 7th most popular website in the world• 380,000,000 visitors• 280+ languages• 19,800,000 articles• 90,000+ editors

By the numbers…

By the numbers…

English Wikipediaequals2,600+

printed volumes

EncyclopediaBritannica

Wikipedia is a tool.

What are appropriate uses of it?

What are appropriate uses of it?

• Introduction to a topic• Popular culture• Foreign language study

Introduction to a topic…

Pop culture…

Foreign language study…

What about other online resources?

Twitter…

Twitter…

#CMLbookchat

Twitter…

Facebook…

Google…

Google is a collection of tools.

Google is a collection of tools.

Google is a collection of tools.

Google is a collection of tools.

Google is a collection of tools.

Google is a collection of tools.

Google is a collection of tools.

Google is a collection of tools.

Google is a collection of tools.

How can I get involved?

Encourage students to edit articles

Encourage students to edit articles

http://bitly.com/qbASkd

Connect students to the world

http://bitly.com/qNEHsE

Encourage responsible “digital citizenship”

http://bitly.com/oPTkDu

Use your tools wisely

Thank you!

Evaluation posted atbit.ly/whynotwiki

Slides are available atwww.slideshare.net/donboozer

Don BoozerKnowItNow24x7 Coordinator

don@cpl.org