Work

Wikipedia and the Humanities in Higher Education: Past Time to Renegotiate the Relationship

Year: 2016

Type: article

Abstract: Since Wikipedia's founding in 2001, higher education has found it controversial as a teaching and learning resource.Many faculty members still ban students from using Wikipedia for their coursework.But a noticeable disparity exists between how academics in STEM (science, technology, engineering, & mathematics) and those in the humanities understand and engage Wikipedia as a teaching and learning resource.Wikipedia, as the scholarly research shows, is a far more credible source than generally acknowledged; and as many educators in STEM, and particularly the natural sciences, have also shown, Wikipedia can be a vital part of the undergraduate and graduate curricula.This study reviews the scholarship on Wikipedia; examines how Wikipedia can have a vital role in humanities education, including that of preparing students to write better and to do scholarly research; and argues why Wikipedia should be part of the humanities curricula globally.

Source: International Journal of Information and Education Technology

DOI: 10.18178/ijiet.2017.7.4.874

Author: Thomas J. Haslam

Institution: Shantou University

Language: English

Topic: Wikis in Education and Collaboration

Subfield: Communication

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Quality education

Open Access status: diamond

Funder: Shantou University