Prior to taking Applied Plant Ecology with Dr. Bazely, I didn’t know that “Wikipedia Editing” was something that the globe was raising awareness about. However, by completing my training modules on Wiki Education Dashboard, I have gained a lot of new knowledge about what goes into developing Wikipedia pages and editing them as well. I have come to learn that they aren’t as unreliable as many people think they are…in fact there are a lot of policies made by Wikipedia which requires edits to be verifiable and notable.
In 2014, Dr. Bazely launched the Wikipedia assignment for her students as a way for them to learn about Web-based Wikipedia content, Open Access, and Metadata. From reading her three-part blog posts on Wikipedia editing titled “Wikipedia Editathon Chronicles” as well as an article written by, Farah Qaiser, on a guide to Wikipedia Editing and Edit-A-Thons, I began to realize that it is important to raise awareness for the Wikipedia Editing especially for increasing the coverage of #WomeninSTEM and to get rid of the gender and racial biases. I advise all of you to check out account called @WikiWomeninRed who are aiming to help fix the gender gap and turn the red links to blue!
By completing my training modules, I learned a lot about the policies behind Wikipedia and simply how to edit the right way! I used these new techniques and skills from the training modules to edit and add references to the Wikipedia page: Pueraria montana, also known as Kudzu! Throughout my experience editing on Wikipedia a few of the many new things that I learned and kept in mind while editing are:
- Wikipedia’s 5 pillars:
- It is an online encyclopedia
- It has a neutral point of view
- It is a free content
- Wikipedians should interact in a respectful manner
- Wikipedia does not have any firm rules
- Content on Wikipedia is verified with up-to-date and reliable sources that include textbooks and literature reviews….just check out the end of every Wikipedia page! There should also be a good amount of sources and citations, relative to the amount of information that is added. This allows for the information to be fact-checked!
- Images used on Wikipedia should have a “Free license” – the creator of the image allows anyone the use the image without permission.
Just remember, although Wikipedia is a tertiary source of information don’t let that stop you from using it to give you an overview of a topic to start your research!
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 
