The Future of Wikipedia in Education

Jake Orlowitz

Jake Orlowitz
Administrator and Editor, Wikipedia

Jason Chu

Jason Chu
Contributing Editor

The majority of students find Wikipedia ubiquitous and use it daily in their casual research as well as their academic study. What does this mean for educators? If students are using Wikipedia already, educators need to know how it works, and how to usefully work with it.

In this session, we explore how Wikipedia can be integrated into courses as a touchpoint for thinking about research, digital literacy, and critical thinking about the reliability of information. You'll learn about Wikipedia's founding pillars and core policies, its importance to the free knowledge movement, as well as its internal debates and challenges, particularly when used in an educational setting.

Presenters

Jake Orlowitz (User:Ocaasi) is an administrator on Wikipedia and has been a Wikipedia editor since 2007. He's made over 30,000 original edits to the site, and created new articles in the areas of biography, medicine, and international government. He founded The Wikipedia Library in 2012, an open research hub for top editors to gain access to reliable sources and to reference experts. Jake also works on partnerships between Wikipedia and schools, organizations, companies, and cultural institutions. Jake graduated Wesleyan University in 2005, and lives in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, where he works full-time on Wikipedia projects.

Jason Chu is Education Director for Turnitin. His focus is on working to build resources for educators, and his personal passion is to find better ways to enhance student achievement. He moderates this webinar.