Wikipedia for History Projects?

                       

                       The article titled “What? Wikipedia in History Class?” is about how a high school history teacher uses the website Wikipedia to use as a digital tool for high school students to do a history project. This teacher has his students pick a topic in history that interests them and then they must do research on their chosen topic. The students then submit a five hundred word article complete with references to publish on Wikipedia. The students then have to monitor their article on the website by watching to see if any users contribute to their article or to see if it gets flagged for deletion by Wikipedia administrators. The students must work to prevent their article from getting deleted, and regardless of the outcome, submit a five hundred word reflection. The teacher uses this assignment to help his students by doing research, developing a new view of Wikipedia, and learning the difference between fact-only writing and analytical writing.

                        As a future educator I feel that this is a great way for students to not only get more comfortable with navigating the internet, but also with making sure that their online mannerisms are polished up. I also feel that it is a great way to make a research project even more exciting. This project is even more unique because of the fact that students need to follow up with the project even after it is published on the website. I think that this is a great way to hold students accountable and to teach them more things about the internet. I would love to use this idea to give my students experience writing articles for the internet for various reports and for learning proper digital citizenship.

                        The article relates to a few of the ISTE standards for students. It relates to standard one, which requires students to “develop innovative products and processes using technology”. The students met this requirement by creating their own articles on the website. Standard number five was also met which states that students “practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology”. The students demonstrated this by practicing proper online etiquette with the article they published and their correlation with the website administrators. The article also meets standard number six, which states that students “demonstrate a understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations. The students demonstrated this by the use of the internet for the project itself.

Boggs, Jeremy. (2010/2011). What? Wikipedia in history class?. Learning & Leading with Technology, 4(38), 32-33.