Outline

 

From the program

Wikipedia in the Social Studies Classroom: Beyond Information Seeking Add to Planner

Thomas Hammond, Lehigh University with Adam Friedman and Meghan McGlinn
Monday, 6/30/2008, 11:00am–12:00pm; Grand Hyatt Seguin A/B
Wikipedia: teachers hate it, students love it. This presentation looks at Wikipedia not as an information source but as a tool for powerful social studies.

  

What I submitted

 

Purpose & Objectives

Wikipedia is a widely used--and widely reviled--resource. It consistently appears among the top results in many Google searches, and is one of the most heavily-used websites in the world. External reviews have found that its accuracy is (nearly) comparable to more prestigious references, such as Britannica (Giles, 2005) and is superior to other digital references, such as Encarta (PC Pro, 2007). Some teachers and teacher-educators embrace wikipedia as a source of information, albeit perhaps best used as a starting point and not a final word on a topic. On the other hand, the unstable nature of the articles--which can be destroyed by vandals, scrubbed by self-editors, or filled with misinformation by partisans or the uninformed--cause many to reject any use of wikipedia. After all, wikipedia itself states that, "We do not expect you to trust us" (Wikipedia: 10 things you probably didn't know about Wikipedia). What value can there be in using an information source that warns its user not to believe what it says?

Ironically, the entire enterprise of history rests upon using sources that, in many cases, are untrustworthy (but never label themselves as such!) When historians use evidence, they summarize, contextualize, and interrogate the source--but they also corroborate it with other sources (Hicks, Doolittle, & Ewing, 2004). Most of the afore-mentioned attention to wikipedia focuses on its value as an information source, and not as evidence. However, there is far more to wikipedia than just the information; each article comes with tabs presenting the complete history of the article as well as a forum for discussions about what ought to be included in the current version of the article. By using wikipedia critically, and by using the layers beyond the article tab, social studies teachers can engage students in the powerful social studies articulated by the National Council for the Social Studies (1993).

This presentation describes uses of wikipedia connected to powerful social studies, such as compiling a collaborative local history, tracking national news events and reportage, understanding the constructed nature of accounts by using wikiscanner to trace edits, and conducting external reviews of wikipedia and other commonly-encountered sources of historical information, such as commercial films. The session will allow time for audience discussion and will culminate in the building of a wikipedia entry on using wikipedia for powerful social studies education. Participants will exit the session with a broadened understanding of what wikipedia is and what it can do; they will be able to use wikipedia as a tool for not just information searching, but for engaging students in powerful social studies. They will be able to refer back to the wikipedia entry as a resource, and can continue to add to it beyond the conference session.

Outline

5 min - Overview of wikipedia (with attention to layers below article: discussion, edit, and history)

5 min - Patterns of use (and obstruction -- some teachers "forbid" students to use it; some schools block it from their servers)

5 min - Reactions to wikipedia from students, teachers, and administrators

10 min - Wikipedia and powerful social studies: how can teachers and students take advantage of what lies underneath the "article" layer?

20 min - Demonstrations of powerful social studies instruction via wikipedia (e.g., compiling local history, tracking national news, using wikiscanner to trace edits, contrasting wikipedia entries with historical films and other sources, using wikipedia races as a think-aloud technique to introduce new material or conduct a review)

10 min - Discussion with audience

5 min - Revelation of wikipedia entry on powerful social studies instruction using wikipedia, invitation to continue editing the entry

Supporting Research

Giles, J. (2005, December 15). Internet encyclopaedias go head to head. Nature. Retrieved September 27, 2007 from http://www.nature.com/news/2005/051212/full/438900a.html

Hicks, D., Doolittle, P., & Ewing, T. (2004). The SCIM-C strategy: Expert historians, historical inquiry, and multimedia. Social Education, 68(3), 221-225.

National Council for the Social Studies. (1993). A vision of powerful teaching and learning in the Social Studies: Building social understanding and civic efficacy. Social Education, 57(5), 213-223.

PC Pro. (2007). Wikipedia vs the old guard. PC Pro, 154, 134-135. Retrieved September 27, 2007 from http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/119640/wikipedia-vs-the-old-guard.html

Richardson, W. (2006) Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for the classroom. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Presenter Background

Thomas C. Hammond is an assistant professor in the Teaching, Learning, and Technology program at Lehigh University, focusing on students' and teachers' use of emerging technologies for social studies education. He has presented at national conferences and published in ISTE journals and books on these topics.

Adam Friedman is an assistant professor of social studies education at Wake Forest University. He has published extensively in Theory and Research in Social Education, the Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, and Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education.

Meghan McGlinn is an assistant professor of social studies education at Old Dominion University. She has contributed to social studies education textbooks and published in Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education and Social Education.

 

 


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