[Air-L] in defense of wiki vandalism....

[Jennifer Stromer-Galley]

I think you raise a good point, Margie, about vandalism -- why not test
boundaries? It just hadn't occurred to me that they would, given the
very public nature of Wikipedia. But, alas, what would Cartman do? I
need to keep that in mind . . . .

Just to be clear, though, I didn't require my students to actually edit
Wikipedia, because I agree with you. The last thing I want to do is
subject the Wikipedia editors to my students who have neither the
knowledge base, skills, or interest to edit particular pages. Now, I
grant there are exceptions (some of my students have remarkable popular
culture knowledge and good writing skills), but for the most part, they
anyway aren't all that inclined to contribute to the collective wisdom
exhibited in Wikipedia.

I should note that my students are creating a wiki on "Web 2.0" for the
end of class, but on PB Wiki, and mostly as an exercise to expose them
to online, collaborative writing.

~Jenny

Assistant Professor
Department of Communication, SS 340
University at Albany, SUNY
Albany, NY 12222
518-442-4873
jstromer at albany.edu
http://www.albany.edu/~jstromer 


> -----Original Message-----
> From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org 
> [mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Margie Borschke
> Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 6:10 PM
> To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
> Subject: [Air-L] in defense of wiki vandalism....
> 
> It strikes me as almost appropriate that students who are 
> required to edit a Wikipedia entry as part of a class, ended 
> up vandalizing pages. I think you could argue that it is a 
> valid response to being forced into public participation, 
> particularly in the context of a self-organising community 
> where all the other participants are self selected.  If you'd 
> not  edited Wikipedia before,  wouldn't boundaries be the 
> first thing you'd want to test?  What would Cartman do?
> I assure you he's not going to try the sandbox first.
> 
> I think a lot of  students would also 'get' that in addition 
> to being a knowledge resource, wikipedia is also a kind of 
> game, something former Wikipedia editor  Brion Vibber pointed 
> out in Nicholson Baker's NY Review of Books article, The 
> Charms of Wikipedia.
> 
> While there are clearly good pedagogical uses of Wikipedia, 
> required editing makes me uneasy. It's not so great for 
> students to have to learn in public and not so great for the 
> people participating to have a group of students descend upon 
> them either.
> 
> --Margie Borschke