I can’t count the number of times I have been told by high school teachers about the unreliable source of, Wikipedia and to never use it when citing papers because they are unreliable sources. Since then, I have been going about my academic career always avoiding Wikipedia pages like the plague; out of fear that I would be using wrong information and look like a brainless fool in front of my professors. Until the day I stumbled upon BIOL 4095: Applied Plant Ecology run by Professor Bazely.
She has opened my eyes to a new view on the source of Wikipedia, about the idea that it truly can be a great source to obtain information,as it can be a good source of Open access for Science Communication, a major concept of the course. At first, I was nervous to get started, as I was a little intimidated by the process (which is why I procrastinated doing it for so long). When I finally got started with making an account I choose the name of pinguicula dilemma. Pinguicula, is the genus name of my favorite carnivorous plant species, the butterwort plant. And dilemma was chosen due to the deceitful ways this plant lures its prey in, to then be eaten.
I started editing the Wikipedia page on this plant species, but I was confused on how to start editing. I then read the article that Professor Bazely suggested in the assignment guidelines, an article by graduate student, Ms. Farah Qaiser. Although, helpful I was still lost on how to actual edit, until I realized that I was trying to edit in “source editing” which made the task a lot harder, as I realized I should be editing in “visual editing” making it A LOT easier to edit the page. (thank you to my fellow classmates for the information)
After this mishap, it was pretty much smooth sailing from there, I was adding in additional information to that page. I felt like an expert and professional while doing it. I found myself keep looking at the page to stare at my work. Being a Wikipedia makes me feel confident and smart.
My newfound experience with the Wikipedia dashboard as connected the dots from my previous experience of editing a Wikipedia article. My experience registering with Wikipedia Edu was not a challenge at all, it was very easy, simply the click of a few keys, which I appreciate. I must say, editing an article through the dashboard was very helpful. It took you through step by step and explained everything in detail, it even had videos. When I first edited an article in Wikipedia for this course, it took a little bit to understand the mechanics of how to edit. Even though I was able to edit a page, I wasn’t completely confident about my work. However, using the dashboard helped with my understanding of editing in visual as oppose to source view, improving my understanding of what are considered reliable sources, being able to communicate with fellow Wikipians, etc. After my Wikipedia dashboard training, I felt like a true, Wikipedian. As I now know how to properly edit and how to looks for article that need improvements. What I learned through these modules was, the different classes of articles, such as C- class, S- class, etc and wiki code.
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 