The Observer, November 9, 2007
Volume XL, Issue 10
Outside the Circle
When Wikipedia is the assignment
At the annual Educase conference last week, which brings educators from around the country together to discuss the concerns of education today, a professor and a specialist in learning technology from the University of Washington at Bothell showed how Wikipedia can be used as a central component to a course rather than as a banned resource. Educators often assume that students rely too heavily on Wikipedia, ready to accept the unverifiable information the resource presents.
Martha Groom, a professor at the university's Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences program, required students in her course to submit their term papers to the user-edited encyclopedia last fall. Groom asked of herself, "How do you motivate students to do their best work?," which implies that the answer lies in the possibility of other people viewing the work on a regular basis. And because Wikipedia is public, students are less likely to plagiarize on their papers.
In the fall of 2006, Groom required students to make major revisions to an existing Wikipedia article or create one of their own, which was to have 1500 words for 60 percent of the course grade. The assignment for her environmental history and globalization course encompassed a proposal, a first draft, peer review, revisions, and a final copy, which students then submitted to the site.
Many students found the assignment worthwhile. Groom showed a slide with a comment from one of her students, who wrote, "This assignment felt so real! I had not thought that anything I wrote was worth others reading before, but now I think what I contributed was useful, and I'm glad other people can gain from my research."
Groom also said the assignments were generally better written.
Alfred U. caught in Turkish debate
Alfred University's new campus in Turkey has caused quite a stir among residents. Newspapers across the country have been full of coverage and complaints about the new campus and specifically, the campus' approach to women.
The source of attention is that Alfred permits women who want to cover their heads with scarves to do so. The country, however, has banned such an allowance at all other universities. Mermi, a news blog from Turkey, has reported that secular newspapers are reporting student complaints about the head scarves. In Turkey, such choices carry significant political as well as religious overtones. The blog also reports that Islamic newspapers are finding Alfred's rules agreeable.
Alfred University opened the campus in Istanbul earlier this year. It plans to offer full degree programs. Officials from the campus argue that they are allowing women students the same concessions as the students at the campus in New York state.
Charles M. Edmondson, the president, said, "We are applying the same standards of religious tolerance at our Istanbul campus as we do on our main campus in Alfred, N.Y. Our Turkish partners are fine with that, and never asked us to do anything beyond that."
Live from Ohio: rock stars and the RIAA
Last week, Ohio University held a panel on illegal peer-to-peer file sharing. The panel consisted of music experts, critics and sympathizers of illegal downloading, and a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer.
The campus has received 100 pre-litigation letters this year from the Recording Industry Association of America. As a result, earlier this year, Ohio University announced an unusually strict peer-to-peer downloading policy. In an effort to provide a legal downloading source, the university has joined Ruckus, a subscription-based music service.
Though representing a wide spectrum of views, the panelists were congenial. Many students posed questions to the artists themselves, and a representative from the RIAA faced heated criticisms of the agency's tactics.
Eddie Ashworth, an Ohio University instructor and an audio engineer, openly questioned the RIAA's campaign, noting that there is little evidence for a correlation between illegal downloading and loss of revenues from the recording industry. He also commented that the RIAA's sue-happy tendencies may have short term benefits, but the long term effects can be disastrous. It's not an "intelligent business move to criminalize" its customers, he said. "I'm embarrassed by the tactics I've seen the RIAA take."
Many students pointed out the vast profits recording companies are making off their artists, which some use to justify illegal downloading.
"There's only so much money, only so much power, people at the top can have," one said to Jonathan Lamy, the RIAA's director of communications. "As long as you have privilege, we'll be stealing...and sharing music."
Delaware halts program
At the University of Delaware last week, officials announced that the school was stopping a program designed to train students living in dormitories about issues of diversity. A civil liberties group claimed earlier last week that the training amounted to ideological indoctrination.
Patrick Harker, the new president at Delaware, issued a letter last week in which he says that "recent press accounts misrepresent" the goals for the program, but that "there are questions about its practices that must be addressed."
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education released documents from the program which suggest that students were taught that all white people are racist and that resident assistants were trained to ask students personal questions about their sexuality. In addition, the documents suggested that the resident assistants encouraged certain actions, like sustainability door decorations.
