Wikipedia at the University: engaging students and teachers in open knowledge and collaborative work

Abstract

[EN] In the last decade, Wikipedia has gone from being one of the great enemies ofeducation to becoming a great ally, especially thanks to the degree of rigourand organisation it has achieved. The free encyclopaedia is increasinglypresent in universities and offers numerous opportunities for teachers foreducational innovation.This paper describes an innovation project promoted by MediaLab USAL atthe University of Salamanca and aimed at the generation and publication ofopen knowledge, at university level, in the open encyclopaedia Wikipedia.This project aims to promote the creation of quality content in Spanish at theUniversity, to include the rigorous editing of content in Wikipedia as part ofthe practical work of undergraduate and postgraduate subjects at theUniversity of Salamanca and to offer a new free learning tool to teachers andstudents. The initiative has counted with the participation of more than 100professors, 584 students and has achieved the creation of 1752 articlesspecialised in different areas of knowledge in Wikipedia.