Wikipedia Editors

This is the follow up assignment to the Wikipedia Reliability Worksheet in which we provide feedback on the article editors.

The 3 editors I selected from my article all seem to believe in Wikipedia and it's goals. They have concerns about the Wikipedia community:

• bringing in new editors to sustain and improve Wikipedia well into the future
• particular biases and squabbles among editors 
• pecking orders among various editors

Overall, seeing their pages increases the validity of the article because I can see their credentials. Knowing there are these disputes/concerns in the background as editors work to apply the foundation of neutrality helps me to see them as individuals working toward a common goal rather than a conspiracy. Freedom.

It is a little disconcerting because I do find myself wondering about their biases and whether that would taint their articles but everything I've seen so far has been, by far, neutral.

Less Wrong is a wiki page link from a Wikipedia editor.  It's full of hyperlinks to tons of reading on increasing one's rational and logical thought processes. It's definitely something I plan to read!

Wikipedia Reliability Assignment

Here is the link to my completed Wikipedia Reliability Worksheet

Digital literacy comix

Created with: Angelica Chase
Our inspiration for this Comix strip was a joke about a computer illiterate person calling tech support needing help finding the 'Any" key. He didn't know where it was located and the manual said to "press any key".

Poll Results: Where do you want to live?

Today's post discusses the article, "Are Digital Media Changing Language?" written by Naomi S. Baron.

"Gradually, we have become less obsessed with correctness and more focused on tolerance and personal expression. This shift, however admirable, has linguistic consequences. School is no longer necessarily a place to instill a sense that linguistic rules (or even linguistic consistency) matter."

I found it a little disconcerting to read that the importance of proper grammar is diminishing in our schools. Don't get me wrong, I am not a grammarian, or even close for that matter however, removing higher expectations in favor of an emphasis on informal speech/writing is an injustice to our students, particularly in preparing them for the professional world.

Example: Precision matters in mathematics and the sciences. Being able to properly communicate research findings and collaborate with peers and colleagues across a multitude of disciplines are compelling reasons for linguistic consistency.

“Whatever the benefits of digital media, it is destroying the ability of young people to construct the basic unit of the English Language...the sentence.”

I disagree with this statement because:

• Writing is less formal these days, since informal social communications dominate our interactions.
• Incorporation of pictures, video and audio creates a richer method of communication

Additional resource:

Does Digital Media Make Us Bad Writers

Poll Everywhere Computer Response

Take my poll here about where you want to live