Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Macalester College/Endangered and Minority Languages1 (fall 2016)
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- Course name
- Endangered and Minority Languages1
- Institution
- Macalester College
- Instructor
- Marianne Milligan
- Wikipedia Expert
- Ian (Wiki Ed)
- Subject
- linguistics
- Course dates
- 2016-08-31 00:00:00 UTC – 2016-12-09 23:59:59 UTC
- Approximate number of student editors
- 20
Language loss is accelerating at alarming rates. In fact, Linguists predict that only five percent of the six thousand languages currently spoken in the world are expected to survive into the 22nd century. In this course, we will examine the historical, political, and socio-economic factors behind the endangerment and/or marginalization of languages in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and North and South America. We will also concentrate on the globalization of English (and other major languages), which plays a primary role in language endangerment and marginalization. Additional topics include: linguistic diversity, language policy, multilingualism (in both nations and individuals), global language conflict, and language revitalization.
Timeline
Week 1
- Course meetings
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- Friday, 2 September 2016
- In class - Introduction to the Wikipedia project
Welcome to your Wikipedia project's course timeline. This page will guide you through the Wikipedia project for your course. Be sure to check with your instructor to see if there are other pages you should be following as well.
This page breaks down writing a Wikipedia article into a series of steps, or milestones. These steps include online trainings to help you get started on Wikipedia.
Your course has also been assigned a Wikipedia Content Expert. Check your Talk page for notes from them. You can also reach them through the "Get Help" button on this page.
To get started, please review the following handouts:
- Editing Wikipedia pages 1–5
- Evaluating Wikipedia
Week 2
- Course meetings
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- Wednesday, 7 September 2016 | Friday, 9 September 2016
- Assignment - Practicing the basics
- Create an account and join this course page, using the enrollment link your instructor sent you.
- It's time to dive into Wikipedia. Below, you'll find the first set of online trainings you'll need to take. New modules will appear on this timeline as you get to new milestones. Be sure to check back and complete them! Incomplete trainings will be reflected in your grade.
- When you finish the trainings, practice by introducing yourself to a classmate on that classmate’s Talk page.
- Milestones
This week, everyone should have a Wikipedia account.
Week 3
- Course meetings
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- Monday, 12 September 2016 | Wednesday, 14 September 2016 | Friday, 16 September 2016
- Assignment - Choose possible topics
- Review page 6 of your Editing Wikipedia guidebook.
- Choose a language: see Moodle for details. Submit choice on Moodle.
- In class - Discussion
- What's a content gap?
Now that you're thinking about what makes a "good" Wikipedia article, consider some additional questions.
- Wikipedians often talk about "content gaps." What do you think a content gap is, and what are some possible ways to identify them?
- What are some reasons a content gap might arise? What are some ways to remedy them?
- Does it matter who writes Wikipedia?
- What does it mean to be "unbiased" on Wikipedia? How is that different, or similar, to your own definition of "bias"?
Week 4
- Course meetings
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- Monday, 19 September 2016 | Wednesday, 21 September 2016 | Friday, 23 September 2016
- Assignment - Add to an article
Familiarize yourself with editing Wikipedia by adding a citation to an article. There are two ways you can do this:
- Add 1-2 sentences to a course-related article, and cite that statement to a reliable source, as you learned in the online training.
- The Citation Hunt tool shows unreferenced statements from articles. First, evaluate whether the statement in question is true! An uncited statement could just be lacking a reference or it could be inaccurate or misleading. Reliable sources on the subject will help you choose whether to add it or correct the statement.
- In class - Discussion
- Thinking about sources and plagiarism
- Blog posts and press releases are considered poor sources of reliable information. Why?
- What are some reasons you might not want to use a company's website as the main source of information about that company?
- What is the difference between a copyright violation and plagiarism?
- What are some good techniques to avoid close paraphrasing and plagiarism?
Week 5
- Course meetings
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- Monday, 26 September 2016 | Wednesday, 28 September 2016 | Friday, 30 September 2016
- Assignment - Critique an article
It's time to think critically about Wikipedia articles. You'll evaluate a Wikipedia article, and upload suggestions for improving it on moodle.
- Complete the "Evaluating Articles and Sources" training (linked below).
- Look through the Irish language page and the Munsee language page. Take note of the the sections and content of these pages. Then read through the wikipedia page for your language. What sections are present? What seems to be missing compared to Irish and Munsee? Identify 2-3 places where you could expand the sociolinguistic/historical/language family information about the language and 2-3 places where you could expand the grammatical information about the language.
- While you read, you should also consider the following questions (but don't feel limited to these):
- Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference?
- Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you?
- Is the article neutral? Are there any claims, or frames, that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
- Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?
- Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
- Check a few citations. Do the links work? Is there any close paraphrasing or plagiarism in the article?
- Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added?
- In class - Discussion
- Thinking about Wikipedia
- What do you think of Wikipedia's definition of "neutrality"?
- What are the impacts and limits of Wikipedia as a source of information?
- On Wikipedia, all material must be attributable to reliable, published sources. What kinds of sources does this exclude? Can you think of any problems that might create?
- If Wikipedia was written 100 years ago, how might its content (and contributors) be different? What about 100 years from now?
- In class - Choose a section to expand/revise
In consultation with the professor, you will take one of the missing content areas that you identified in the previous assignment and write a ~200 word addition to the wikipedia page. If describing a grammatical aspect of the language, this will also include examples.
Keep reading your sources, too, as you prepare to write the body of the article.
Resources: Editing Wikipedia pages 7–9
- Assignment - Finalize your topic / Find your sources
- On the Students tab, assign your chosen topic to yourself.
- In your sandbox, write a few sentences about what you plan to contribute to the selected article.
- Think back to when you did an article critique. What can you add? Post some of your ideas to the article's talk page, too.
- Compile a list of relevant, reliable books, journal articles, or other sources. Post that bibliography to the talk page of the article you'll be working on, and in your sandbox. Make sure to check in on the Talk page to see if anyone has advice on your bibliography.
- Milestones
Everyone has begun writing their article drafts.
- Assignment - Expand your draft
- Keep working on transforming your article into a complete first draft. Get draft ready for peer-review.
- If you'd like a Content Expert to review your draft, now is the time! Click the "Get Help" button in your sandbox to request notes.
Week 6
- Course meetings
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- Monday, 3 October 2016 | Wednesday, 5 October 2016 | Friday, 7 October 2016
- Assignment - Submit your first edit/addition for the professor to comment on
You will finalize a draft of your edits/addition for the professor to comment on.
Week 7
- Course meetings
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- Monday, 10 October 2016 | Wednesday, 12 October 2016 | Friday, 14 October 2016
- Assignment - Choose a 2nd section to edit/add
In consultation with the professor, you will chose a 2nd section to edit/add to. Like the first edit, this will be around 200 words and will include appropriate examples
Week 8
- Course meetings
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- Monday, 17 October 2016 | Wednesday, 19 October 2016
- Assignment - Begin moving your work to Wikipedia
Once you've made improvements to your article based on the professor's comments, it's time to move your work to Wikipedia proper - the "mainspace."
Editing an existing article?
- NEVER copy and paste your draft of an article over the entire article. Instead, edit small sections at a time.
- Copy your edits into the article. Make many small edits, saving each time, and leaving an edit summary. Never replace more than one to two sentences without saving!
Creating a new article?
- Read Editing Wikipedia page 13, and follow those steps to move your article from your Sandbox to Mainspace.
- You can also review the [[../../../training/students/sandboxes|Sandboxes and Mainspace]] online training.
- Assignment - Final article
It's the final week to develop your article.
- Read Editing Wikipedia page 15 to review a final check-list before completing your assignment.
- Don't forget that you can ask for help from your Content Expert at any time!
- Milestones
Everyone should have finished all of the work they'll do on Wikipedia, and be ready for grading.