Project Description: Beyond the “Orientation to the Archives”: Understanding the Development of Archival Literacy Through Structured Historical Writing Assignments for Wikipedia (McDonald)
Project Description:
Wikipedia has been until recently very much like the weather; everyone complains about it, but no one seems able to do anything about it. That is about to change. Thanks, in part, to the pioneering work with the Wikimedia foundation and the Wikipedia community by University of Michigan Chemist Anne McNeil (http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/Resources/Case_Studies) the path is now clear to use Wikipedia entries for undergraduate teaching. This means that Wikipedia’s powerful motivational force – the ability of undergraduate students to “publish” entries as part of course assignments at the end of an academic term – can now be harnessed to broader goals including the critical understanding of where Wikipedia information comes from and the difference between and use of primary and secondary sources in historical work.
For the next three years the Bentley Historical Llibrary will offer a course each Winter term on the history of the University of Michigan in which the primary writing assignment will be a Wikipedia entry on the history of the University. The course is being taught by four members of the Bentley staff including its director, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of History Dr. Terrence J. McDonald. Training in the use of Wikipedia will be provided by the same staff members from the Hatcher Library at Michigan who were so successful training the students who worked with Professor McNeil. Because this course has been born in and will be taught out of the Bentley Historical Library, which is the University’s archive, it overcomes what recent research suggests is the most frequently encountered obstacle to the development of “archival intelligence,” the inability of archival faculty to be involved in the actual development of courses. In this case the instructional team will select the items on which the students can write from those persons and buildings involved in the history of the University of Michigan needing new or improved Wikipedia entries and which –crucially-- have primary archival materials and available secondary sources at the Bentley Library. Students will work in teams of two on these entries and will be required to consult both the primary archival sources and the available secondary sources. The writing assignment will begin as a relatively traditional paper assignment and be transferred into the Wikipedia “sand box” only after a first draft “standard” paper has been written. Although Wikipedia itself discourages the use of primary sources in its entries, students will have the experience of comparing primary and secondary sources in the assignment before it is transferred into Wikipedia. Seventy five students are expected in the first run of the course in 2015; the enrollment is expected to grow thereafter.
IMLS Student Participation:
The “ownership” of this course by the Library will permit the organization of a research team of students and faculty. The Library’s ability to track the ordering and use of primary materials through its newly installed AEON system will greatly facilitate this research. Graduate students will be invited to join the instructional and research team to design an evaluation for this course to assess student learning and study whether data in AEON can be used as “learning analytics”.
Mentoring Plan:
Professor Terry McDonald, director of the Bentley Historical Library, and Associate Director Nancy Bartlett will share mentoring responsibilities for the student. They will work closely with the REM Fellow to design and carry out the evaluation and work with the student and other IT personnel to perform the data mining activities related to AEON. The Bentley Library is a primary employer of UMSI students and so the REM Fellow will have substantial peer mentroign by other Master’s students working on a variety of projects at the Library. The REM Fellow will receive regular feedback from Professor McDonald and Ms. Bartlett.