A half hour talk for around 80 National Honor students on using Wikipedia effectively for academia. An updated version of this Powerpoint has been uploaded on 5/13/08 at 12.20pm. You can also view the video of this talk at http://theory.isthereason.com/?p=2192

1. I How to use Wikipedia for academia Kevin Lim • University at Buffalo Cheektowaga Central High School • 13 th May 2008

2. Kevin Lim Cyberculture Researcher http://theory.isthereason.com

4. Where do you go when you’re online?

5. Source: http://xkcd.com/256

12. How do we edit pages on Wikipedia?

13. Anatomy of Wikipedia: Normal View * key interaction areas

14. Anatomy of Wikipedia: Editing View * key interaction areas

15. Size of English Wikipedia Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Size_of_English_Wikipedia_in_August_2007.svg

16. Contents of English Wikipedia (satire!) Source: http://www.qwghlm.co.uk/blog/2007/08/29/what-wikipedia-would-look-like-if-on-paper-broken-down/

17. How do we know what’s accurate on Wikipedia?

18. “ Wikipedia is a great place to start, not end , your research” Dr. Alex Halavais http://alex.halavais.net

19. The Good Idea: Proper citing of Wikipedia

20. Wikipedia pages are dynamic. They typically change over time.

21. Wikipedia lets you “Cite this page”.

22. Offers various citation styles

23. Wikipedia pages also feature version history .

24. “ Freeze your reference” by picking your preferred point in history

25. Cite references using the “permalink” to that point in history

26. Anatomy of Wikipedia: Revision View When in doubt, try Wikipedia’s Revision View

27. The Better Idea: Going beyond Wikipedia

28. Wikipedia has numbered citations, linked to references below...

29. Work from these references. Keep branching outward from there.

30. Go through references, picking ones you think are great for your paper.

31. Bates, Marcia J. (1989). “The Design of Browsing and Berrypicking Techniques for the Online Search Interface.” Online Review, 13(5): 407-424. Available here: http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/bates/berrypicking.html

32. Wikipedia is immense.

33. Take your time to understand the community and culture.

34. Questions & Answers hopefully.

35. References Related Wiki Links Dynamics of Wikipedia, by Su-Liane Yeo (Nov 2007) http://www.slideshare.net/syeo/dynamics-of-wikipedia/ Wikibooks: How to start a Wiki http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wiki_Science:How_to_start_a_Wiki Wikipedia: How to Edit a Page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:How_to_edit_a_page Free Wiki has demos, screenshots, and general info on Wikis. http://www.freewiki.info/ A Comprehensive Wiki Comparison Engine http://www.wikimatrix.org/ Using Wiki in Education http://scienceofspectroscopy.info/edit/index.php?title=Using_wiki_in_education

36. References Related Blog Readings Blogs & Wikis: contributing to the e-dialog Recordings of an ETC Discussion Forum held on September 28th, 2005, provided by Professor Alex Halavais Weblogs and collaborative web publishing as learning spaces. Halavais, A. (In press). In J. Weiss, J. Nolan, and P. Trifonas (Eds.), International Handbook of Virtual Learning Environments. Springer. Handbook for Bloggers and Cyberdissidents Reporters Without Borders. http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=542 Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge University Press. Wenger, E. (1998).