Teaching <em>Wikipedia</em> as a mirrored technology

Authors

  • Colleen A. Reilly University of North Carolina Wilmington

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v16i1.2824

Keywords:

writing and technology, critical literacies and pedagogies, Wikipedia and higher education

Abstract

Digital spaces on the World Wide Web can be consumed as windowed technologies, providing apparently transparent access to information, or as mirrors, multi–layered and complex, requiring critical reflexivity for productive participation. Approaching Wikipedia as a mirrored technology exploits its potential as a pedagogical tool with which students can improve their research practices and writing proficiency in digital environments. Students can learn to grapple with Wikipedia as a complex, living discourse community, whose rhetorical practices and technical conventions they must learn in order to make contributions to it that are accepted by fellow editors of the site and withstand its unique editorial processes. By writing for Wikipedia, students become critical users of this digital resource, develop rhetorical and technological proficiency, and generate texts that prompt real–world response and provide potentially useful information for fellow users of this massive digital resource.

Author Biography

Colleen A. Reilly, University of North Carolina Wilmington

Associate Professor of English

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Published

2010-12-18

How to Cite

Reilly, C. A. (2010). Teaching <em>Wikipedia</em> as a mirrored technology. First Monday, 16(1). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v16i1.2824