Submissions:2015/Wikifying Science Fiction’s “Grand Dame” Octavia E. Butler: The LaGuardia Community College WikiProject


 * Title: Wikifying Science Fiction’s “Grand Dame” Octavia E. Butler: The LaGuardia Community College WikiProject


 * Theme: education


 * Type of submission: presentation
 * Author: Ximena Gallardo C., Professor of English and Ann Matsuuchi, Instructional Technology Librarian/Associate Professor - LaGuardia Community College, CUNY


 * E-mail address: amatsuuchi@lagcc.cuny.edu


 * Username: Ximena Gallardo C. (User: Doctorxgc) & Ann Matsuuchi (User: Mozucat)


 * Affiliation: LaGuardia Community College, CUNY, 31-10 Thomson Avenue, Long Island City, NY 11101

This presentation will facilitate a discussion about an intensive, multi-semester project focused on using Wikipedia to better provide open access scholarly information on the work of Octavia E. Butler and her work. This project has served as a means for allowing students to engage with existing scholarship on Butler as well as gain relevant practice in writing collaboratively, both with each other in small groups and with the larger online communities of Wikipedia editors and science fiction fandom. The presentation will also review the impact that working on distinct types of research writing (collaborative, online encyclopedic entries versus individual thesis-based research papers) had on students’ understanding of Butler’s life and works as well as their engagement with the course material. At 2014’s WikiConference in NYC, we invited students from the early part of the project to present on their Wikipedia participation and one of their comments was: “‘This was the best experience of my life.” We will invite students to join us for this presentation as well.
 * Abstract:

Our methodology will be illustrated with examples from two English research paper classes which formed part of the Wikipedia Education program during the Spring 2014 and 2015 semesters alongside classes conducted at the CUNY Graduate Center, Barnard College, Harvard, Georgetown University, and NYU. Working in teams with Wikipedia editors, our students redrafted the Wikipedia article on Butler’s bestselling novels Fledgling and Kindred as well as the information on Octavia Butler’s biography.

Our presentation will not be solely limited to details of this project, and will touch upon issues of interest to educators interested in developing strategies to improve faculty outreach: how to conduct collaborative workshops and editathons with other departments and programs, and how to integrate librarians involved in information/digital literacy in the instructional process.

30 min. (flexible on timing and format)
 * Length of presentation:


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