Thursday, May 29, 2008
Tonight's Agenda:
1. A warm-up Wikipedia assignment: go from the article on Ancient Greece to the article on Kevin Bacon. When you've done it, retrace your path by hitting the back button on your browser. The fewest links win.
2. Try to trace the links between two different academic disciplines: Phytoremediation (the use of plants to remove toxins from the environment) and the Milgram Experiment (a famous psychological experiment in which subjects were asked to administer electrical shocks to an actor.)
You can start from either end and work your way to the other. Consider your reasoning in interdisciplinary terms.
3. Go back and exam the edits (and discussion) that other users have made to your Wikipedia articles. Do you agree with those changes? Remember, you can compare any two versions of a Wikipedia article, merely by going to the History page, selecting the two versions, and hitting the Compare button.
Also, while you're looking at your articles, please add the template {{EducationalAssignments}} to the TALK page -- not the article page!! -- so that your articles can be categorized as such.
4. If you have time, please start to consider how you might use Wikipedia as a resource for yourself or for your future students. If you aren't interested in using it, why not? What could make Wikipedia more useful for you as an educator?
1. A warm-up Wikipedia assignment: go from the article on Ancient Greece to the article on Kevin Bacon. When you've done it, retrace your path by hitting the back button on your browser. The fewest links win.
2. Try to trace the links between two different academic disciplines: Phytoremediation (the use of plants to remove toxins from the environment) and the Milgram Experiment (a famous psychological experiment in which subjects were asked to administer electrical shocks to an actor.)
You can start from either end and work your way to the other. Consider your reasoning in interdisciplinary terms.
3. Go back and exam the edits (and discussion) that other users have made to your Wikipedia articles. Do you agree with those changes? Remember, you can compare any two versions of a Wikipedia article, merely by going to the History page, selecting the two versions, and hitting the Compare button.
Also, while you're looking at your articles, please add the template {{EducationalAssignments}} to the TALK page -- not the article page!! -- so that your articles can be categorized as such.
4. If you have time, please start to consider how you might use Wikipedia as a resource for yourself or for your future students. If you aren't interested in using it, why not? What could make Wikipedia more useful for you as an educator?
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Can't We All Just Get Along? Wikipedia disputes
Tonight we'll be looking at the process by which Wikipedia articles are disputed. Here are a couple of handy links:
Thursday, May 8, 2008
A blog you might enjoy:
In 2005 Canadian Kyle MacDonald made headlines by trading a red paper clip for slightly more desirable objects, ultimately trading up to a house. Inspired idea, or proof that humanity is insane? Read his blog and decide for yourself.
Some handy Wikipedia links...
- What's my topic? A list of requested articles
- Is my topic notable? Notability guidelines
- Where do I begin? A guide to writing your first article
- What is NPOV? A guide to writing "neutral" articles
- How do I cite sources? A guide to creating citations
- Where can I find public domain images? Wikimedia Commons
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
A great place to start looking for blogs
... is Technorati. Think of it as the TV Guide of blogs. You'll find a rundown of the internet's most popular blog topics, profiles of interesting new blogs, and Billboard-like rankings of the most popular blogs. Search for your blog topic and you'll be off to a good start for your blogiography.
A different post
A different post
Blogiography
Think of this as something like a webliography. The difference is you will limit yourself to other blogs dealing with your topic. You will include 10 blog links, and provide a short description (a sentence should suffice) that distinguishes each blog from similar blogs. This should be an easy source of points – just make sure you pick relevant links.
Entering the Blogosphere!
You will choose a topic that fits the requirements of interdisciplinary study, and blog on that topic throughout the course. Your 20 posts must include:
1. A link to a recently published news story (originally published no more than two weeks before your post) or piece of academic research (originally published no more than a month before your post.)
2. Commentary of no less than 100 words on that item, not including quotes from the original source. You may include your personal views, or simply summarize the source.
1. A link to a recently published news story (originally published no more than two weeks before your post) or piece of academic research (originally published no more than a month before your post.)
2. Commentary of no less than 100 words on that item, not including quotes from the original source. You may include your personal views, or simply summarize the source.
You are highly encouraged to include more than one link per post. However, keep each post focused on a single topic. You are also encouraged to incorporate images and video.
Welcome to BIS 400 (AKA BIS 401)
I'd like to start by welcoming everyone to what I hope will be an exciting marriage of interdisciplinary studies and digital technology.
This course is simple to describe. We will use two digital media tools, blogspot and the wiki platform, to present our original research on interdisciplinary topics of our choosing.
While I will explain the course details in class, I would like to ask everyone to check this blog regularly for announcements. For instance, I will regularly post rankings of our blogs web traffic, to monitor their growth.
For your convenience, here is a breakdown of the points given for each assignment, as well as their due dates:
200 points: Blog Entries (20 entries at 10 points each)
60 points: “Blogiography”
240 points: Wiki Articles (3 500 word articles at 80 points each)
100 points: Contribution to group wiki project
600 points total
DUE DATES:
This course is simple to describe. We will use two digital media tools, blogspot and the wiki platform, to present our original research on interdisciplinary topics of our choosing.
While I will explain the course details in class, I would like to ask everyone to check this blog regularly for announcements. For instance, I will regularly post rankings of our blogs web traffic, to monitor their growth.
For your convenience, here is a breakdown of the points given for each assignment, as well as their due dates:
200 points: Blog Entries (20 entries at 10 points each)
60 points: “Blogiography”
240 points: Wiki Articles (3 500 word articles at 80 points each)
100 points: Contribution to group wiki project
600 points total
DUE DATES:
5/13: “Blogiography”
5/17: Wiki Article 1
5/22: Wiki Article 2
5/29: Wiki Article 3
5/31: Group Wiki
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)