The American Historical Association has identified five career diversity skills that historians with PhDs said they didn’t learn in grad school, but that have been vital to their success beyond the academy. Rarely does a single professional development experience hit on all five: communication, collaboration, quantitative literacy, intellectual self-confidence, and digital literacy. But Wiki Education is continually … Continued
Highlights Our professional development pilot program was featured this month as part of William Beutler’s “Top Ten Wikipedia Stories of 2018“. Our model of professional development courses offers a potential solution to engaging more academics and subject-matter experts in Wikipedia editing; it seems like the Wikipedia community is as eager as we are to see … Continued
Dr. Kathleen Sheppard has been teaching her students how to edit Wikipedia as an assignment since 2017, with the support of our Wikipedia Student Program technology and staff. She has found that the “real-world” implications of the assignment inspire her students to work harder and better. “Students, and in my experience especially the non-humanities engineering majors, think that … Continued
Highlights Chief Programs Officer LiAnna Davis attended WikiCite 2018, a three-day conference in Berkeley, California, aimed at creating an open repository of all bibliographic data. WikiCite brings together Wikimedia community members, especially those who work on Wikidata, librarians, and other professionals whose work is connected to citations. The conference is structured as learning day, a … Continued
Every year on January 15, we celebrate Wikipedia’s birthday. It takes thousands all around the world to make Wikipedia the resource that it is; Wikipedia Day is a great time to recognize all that hard work and successful collaboration. It’s also a day to speak to the importance of freely available knowledge and to continue conversations about … Continued
The current cultural buzz around oat milk weaves together conversations around food sustainability, plant science, health, pop culture, and new industry growth. But before December 10, 2018, you couldn’t find anything about oat milk on Wikipedia. Now, thanks to a student in Yin-long Qiu’s Plants and Human Health course at the University of Michigan, the … Continued
No creature as horrible as Tlaltecuhtli – the “embodiment of the chaos that raged before Earth’s creation” – should be allowed to roam the world, decided Mesoamerican gods Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca. So, the two powerful deities tore the great sea monster in half in a terrific battle. But Tlaltecuhtli survived (although in pieces) and demanded human sacrifice evermore … Continued
Sometimes making an improvement to a Wikipedia article isn’t about words added. Sometimes a seemingly simple addition to a biography article, like the uploading of a new photo, can make a world of difference. That’s what Cassius Adair of the National Women’s Studies Association found since he’s learned how to edit Wikipedia in our professional … Continued
At the American Geophysical Union’s fall meeting this year, scientists gathering from all around the world were asked to ponder one question. What does science stand for? AGU proposed their own answer to be discussed over the course of the meeting: science stands for inclusion, creativity, and thinking bigger. Director of Partnerships Jami Mathewson and … Continued