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------------------ The topic of whether and how to use Wikipedia in African studies classes was first discussed on H-Africa almost 8 years ago, and then again on several other occasions./1 A recent news item on Wikipedia has me returning to this subject once more, with the thought that it might be a good time to take stock. Has anyone been incorporating contributions to Wikipedia (or any similar online wiki) on course-related topics as an element of the assigned work? How has that worked? Recommendations? The abovementioned news items concerns a course for 4th year medical students at UC-San Francisco, in which the students can actually get credit for contributions to Wikipedia./2 Although the context of this effort is particular to concerns of medical school, I think it illustrates again the potential of collaborative online knowledge sharing for teaching. (The articles are intended to benefit another program involving translating basic health articles into other languages for dissemination via Wikipedia.) Thanks in advance for any feedback. Don Osborn -------- 1. There appear to be four threads on H-Africa have some substantive discussions about Wikipedia and African studies: December 2005 "Wikipedia Contributions" (thread began with a contribution entitled simply "Wikipedia") http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=lx&sort=3&list=H-Africa&month =0512&week=&user=&pw= August 2006 "Wikipedia, academia, and 'Wikimania'" http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=lx&sort=3&list=H-Africa&month =0608&week=&user=&pw= October 2007 "Africa on Wikipedia" (short thread that began with a very skeptical post) http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=lx&sort=3&list=H-Africa&month =0710&week=&user=&pw= November 2012 "WikiAfrica: 30,000 African contributions reached on Wikipedia" http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=lx&sort=3&list=H-Africa&month =1211&week=&user=&pw= 2. "Editing Wikipedia Pages for Med School Credit," New York Times, 30 September 2013 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/30/business/media/editing-wikipedia-pages-fo r-med-school-credit.html -- --
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