When the teacher asked the class to go to the Wikepedia page for education, and was asked to edit it, I thought she was serious. I figured that the teacher was demonstrating the point that once a Wikipedia page has been edited, it is very very likely that the page will revert to its pre-edited form after a short amount of time. I assumed that we were all to make goofy little edits at once, and then check back and none of them would be there. As I write this page I have made two edits to Wikipedia pages to test this out. On the "education" page, in the first sentence, I changed the word "broadest" to "largest", and believe it or not 5-10 minutes later this edit still exists. In my more immature years, I think I edited a page like "World War II" and made some dumb comment, finding that it was removed almost instantly after it was made. For the Wikipedia page "experience", I added the words "super awesome" before "general concept" in the first sentence. I am shocked to find that 5-10 minutes later, this edit still also exists. Perhaps Wikipedia is more editable than I had thought.
If I had to choose a page to edit, I feel as though I would edit the page for my high school. Like many typical students, I have looked at the page for my high school on Wikipedia and have found various statistics and random facts about alumni, but no personal touch has been added. I think it would be enjoyable to have a "building details" section that includes all sorts of nooks and cranny's that every student is familiar with, or perhaps commend some excellent teachers that I had studied under. Adding these sorts of things to the Wikipedia page would certainly make it more enjoyable to read for graduates as well as current students.
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I like your idea of editing the page for your high school. After reading your post, I also looked at the page dedicated to my own high school and discovered that, as you said, there is no personal touch. I belive that if anyone would look up such information, they would want not only some statistics and historical facts, but also informaion about authentic student life. However, you would have to be careful not to be too personal or biased!
ReplyDeleteI really liked reading your post, seeing as you have actually edited Wikipedia before. My first impression when asked to edit Wikipedia was different than yours, unlike you I was not worried whether the edit would remain on the page, but instead whether I was qualified enough to make a comment. The fact that you actually made an edit to the "education" and "experience" pages helps put in perspective that editing Wikipedia pages is a process that occurs continuously. Great job!
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