W15: “What did I learn while editing Wikipedia? How is this assignment different from more traditional student assignments? Is it more fun?”

W15: “What did I learn while editing Wikipedia? How is this assignment different from more traditional student assignments? Is it more fun?”

 

I initially enrolled in this class because I wanted to learn more about sociology through Wikipedia. Also, I wanted to think about how collective intelligence can be used in the field of advertising and public relations, which is my major. In conclusion, there are some differences between my initial determination and what I have now.

First of all, if what I initially wanted was a little more academic and closer to value, what I actually got is a little more practical: How to use Wikipedia in practice. That is, things like how to participate in Wikipedia, what articles, and in what way. The series of processes of selecting a Wikipedia article topic, describing it, and publishing it was not really easy, but if it hadn't been for this class, I might not have done it in my life.

Also, the 10 edits I did every week helped Wikipedia feel more comfortable for me. The first Wikipedia I encountered was an unfamiliar and difficult site, but now it feels like my life. Although it is clearly different from the goal I expected at first, it is rather good that I was able to learn much more practical things and actually use them.

In particular, considering the trend of these days, where Wikipedia is gaining more and more influence, I can assure that it will be of greater help to me in the future. I am proud of myself that I decided to take this class after overcoming the moments of hesitation in enrolling in this class at first because it was not my major class.

 

This class is clearly different from traditional lecture-style classes. In the case of advertising and public relations for my major, in fact, it is rare that classes are conducted in a traditional class format. This is because most of it is conducted in the form of practice. It can be said that this collective intelligence class was also conducted in the form of practice.

The assignments in this class made a great impression on me. Because, all the assignments I submitted in the existing lecture-style classes were “dead” assignments that no longer functioned as new to anyone after the professor had checked them.

However, in this class, I did regular editing within Wikipedia and published a new article on Wikipedia. It can be discovered and developed by other Wikipedians, read by everyone else and become part of the shared knowledge. It could be said to a “living” task. This, I think, makes this class more meaningful than anything else.