This is a good idea. Wikipedia can also be used in your classes to give
students a sense of what it's like to publish and publicly present
arguments. I had my grad students contribute to wikipedia last fall in my
digital cartography class. The students researched a topic not already in
wikipedia (or covered only marginally) then wrote up a research paper. They
also posted a shorter version of the paper online. In this way they not only
contributed to wikipedia, but created something that lasted beyond the class
itself.
I will probably do this again, but I would say it's much harder to invest in
wikipedia than it is simply to use it. Investing means going back and
checking on your work and takes a certain committment.
Beware that wikipedia's popularity works against it: the official status
right now is "appallingly slow."
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Jeremy Crampton
Associate Professor
404 651-1763
350B Sparks Hall
http://monarch.gsu.edu/jcrampton/
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