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

[rsadler]

What would Cartman do?  Well, Cartman is a cartoon!  I'd "hope" that we 
can expect better of real life than characters from South Park!!!!

>> -----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
>>     
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