Submissions:2015/The Wikipedia Book Collector as a Tool for Educators

Title

The Wikipedia Book Collector as a Tool for Educators

Theme

Primarily education, secondarily tech

Type of submission

Short presentation will do, could run it as a workshop if you all would prefer

Author

Steve Foerster

E-mail address

steve.foerster@newworld.ac

Username

stevefoerster

Affiliation

New World University

Abstract

Educators who are interested in having textbooks or other lengthy materials available on specific subjects often find themselves in a difficult situation. For common subjects there are plenty of textbooks, but for less common ones textbooks might be difficult to find at all, and those that are available may have a high cost to the students who need them. Similarly, those educators who prefer to use open educational resources now have a decent selection for introductory courses, but much less of a choice when it comes to textbooks for more advanced courses.

One solution is Wikipedia’s Book Creator tool. This tool allows a non-technical user to package together any desired list of Wikipedia articles as a book, and distribute that book in a variety of convenient formats. Given Wikipedia’s vast scope, sufficient articles are available to cover nearly any topic. And since Wikipedia’s content is openly licensed, it is ideal to remixed it as open educational resources.

This presentation will begin with a live demonstration of how the tool works for those not yet familiar with it. In addition, various advantages and disadvantages of this approach to using Wikipedia articles will be discussed. How to approach matters of authorship and attribution will be considered. Also discussed will be that Wikipedia articles are written to be read individually, and not necessarily textbook chapters, and why that means that such a book is better thought of as a draft to be revised rather than a completed work ready for the shelf. In addition, instructional design best practices will be considered, such as how this sort of book can be a starting point for course materials, and may supplement the course as a whole, but, like any textbook, cannot replace a design process where many resources are assembled and interwoven into a whole.

Length of presentation

30 minutes

Special schedule requests

None

Will you attend WikiConference USA if your submission is not accepted?

Yes

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