For our new IT class project, we are basically going to ‘spot’ inaccuracy in Wikipedia articles and change them into the correct information.
What is wiki?
Wiki is a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser.
Who creates them? Who edits them?
Anyone, who is the member of Wikipedia create a page, and is free to edit, change and comment.
Why use them?
These are used for mostly educational purposes, but as well for bringing up debate topics so that people can come to a conclusion on that certain topic afterwards.
What is my task?
My tasks are to find a page with inaccurate information and correct it in order to improve the use of Wikipedia for other users, but as well to figure out whether Wikipedia include a lot of inaccurate information.
Why learn about Wikipedia?
Wikipedia is a source that most students rely on; whether researching for a topic or a need a clarification on a certain topic, they all go to Wikipedia and read the articles that are posted. However there were few cases where the information in the article were not accurate therefore it created suspicion among people, especially teachers and professions in the educational area. So this project is a good way for us to get to know ways to spot inaccuracies, but as well as prove whether Wikipedia is reliable or not.
We started off by signing up or pbwork.com (a website where anyone can post their work and work together with different people. You also can edit, change and suggest improvements for the works done by the users of the website) By doing so, we could see what people actually do if the posted work is not for educational purpose, and how it would feel if the work was edited and changed.
Our teacher told us to get together into a group and create an account together so that we could post our work on the website and let our classmates edit, comment them. I and Elise were in a group and we posted a previous work from the last Unit (it was about teenage pregnancy); it was quite a shock what people had written in it, or what they had changed in the whole work! At the beginning people were humble while they were commenting and editing. They suggested actual improvements for the whole script, which was very appreciating. However things turned to the wrong side after a day or so, when people started being ‘funny’ and edited the scripts so that it was inappropriate and ‘funny’ for most of the people. The actual goal of the editing changed into making funny changes and comments, and they all forgot what the main purpose was of the whole posting the works. First to me it was funny to read the changes in the original context of the work, however it turned out be not funny when people started editing me and my partner’s work :P
Pbworks.com is a great way to start a debate on a topic, but as well as resources, advertising, and survey and support group.
How Pbworks.com works
Sign Up:
1. They ask for your name, e-mail address and password you would like to use
2. E-mail for confirmation is sent to your e-mail address
3. After you have confirmed the email, you move on to the next step which is filing out the basic information sheet (e.g. location, website, AIM etc.)
4. The choose workplace FREE (since your work is not for educational purpose or anything like that; you got to pay if you wanted to have more GB and more beneficial workplace)
5. You have to create a name for your address (e.g. cool1030.pbworks.com)
6. Then choose whether your works are for individuals or for educational purpose
7. DONE, ready to work
Afterwards, we had to choose a partner whom we have never worked before. 
I and Sarah practically never worked together in IT class, so we decided to work as a group. The task was to plan out a method on how to found out inaccuracy in Wikipedia articles and then change the given inaccurate information into the correct version by following the method we had created.
Sarah and I decided to use the template message on the Wikipedia page, and these are symbols to indicate that certain source or information is doubtable and should be considered to take a look again at that particular section in the article.
The method we are going to follow in order to find inaccuracy in the article:
1. Go to the "Contents" page from the main Wikipedia page
2. Choose a category, and then a sub-category. You should be looking at a section containing about 50 articles.
3. Look through each article for template messages such as "The accuracy of this article is disputed," "This article's point of view is disputed," "This article does not cite any references or sources."
4. Check each article or ideally, section, which is marked with a template message. Look up the information for that article/section on the Internet and in books. If you find an inaccuracy, rewrite the section. If you do not find any inaccuracies, simply add reliable sources to help improve the article.
We decided to look up at “Environmental Articles”, since we believed that it was a controversial topic, so most likely to contain inaccurate information. There were thousands of articles on this topic, so we decided to look at letter ‘G’ in the Index, yet it contained quite a lot of articles, we both looked through the articles quickly, looking for template messages. Most of them were saying that citation was needed, since the sources were cited wrongly and included some small mistakes. We continued eliminating articles, until we decided to choose the article about “Gaia hypothesis.” It's a theory about the way living creatures on the planet interact, and the article seemed pretty biased.
The section we chose needed a citation, and the author used biased language while bringing up the talking about ‘Controversial Concepts” of the Theory.
Design Specification:
· MUST be published
· The topic must relate to adolescence
· Include pictures
· It has to relate to other teenagers
· It has to fulfill its purpose (I will ask the audience whether they feel encouraged and inspired by my podcast)
· It must be less than 15 min
· Audio format
· I should speak clear and loud so that the audience can understand what I am talking about
· Be casual and calm (relaxed)
· Include background music
ü It is published
ü Related to adolescence, since lots of teenagers experience lots of ups and downs
ü I think that it has fulfilled others (my testing results)
ü it was MORE than 20 min
ü Music
ü Calm
ü Audio format
ü Loud and clear
So overall I think that I got it quite good with the design specification and evaluated against our teachers design specification (published and recorded)
TEST:
Suugii Bat-Erdene: Do you think you will be able to listen to my podcast, if I continue doing one?
Did my podcast inspire you and somehow helped you?
Do you think my podcast was boring/ entertaining?
Do you think you would follow the tips I suggested during my podcast?
Temuulen Hartwig: yes it helped me very much
Temuulen Hartwig: becasue it was a good podcast at the right time
Temuulen Hartwig: and I leraned sth from it
Temuulen Hartwig: and I would definatly listen to your again when u would do one
Temuulen Hartwig: yes
Temuulen Hartwig: yes yes
Suugii Bat-Erdene: bayrlalaa =) did u like my podcast?
Temuulen Hartwig: yesssssssssssssssssss
Temuulen Hartwig: i told u
Temuulen Hartwig: yes I would nere listen to it
Suugii Bat-Erdene: okay thank you! ^^
Criterion A:
For Criterion A, we all had to research about podcast, and we all had to take in the consideration of why podcasts are used, for whom and how. I think that I did pretty good research on the overall topic itself, and gained new knowledge about how it works. While I was researching I found that iTunes was a very easy way to publish my podcast, and I decided to use iTunes; however because I didn’t read the steps very thorough and well, it made me to change from iTunes to podomatic.com. First I thought that I could just upload my podcast on iTunes and publish it, but after I was done with recording my podcast and right before publishing it, I read through the instructions again, and it said that iTunes itself should be available in the country I am in, and unfortunately there were none in Mongolia. So, because I didn’t read the instructions well at the very beginning, it made my plan to change and use podomatic.
In the future for improvements, I should thoroughly research the website in order to publish my podcast, and see what is required in order to publish it. I think that I could have researched more about different methods of publishing and websites that support podcast publishing, if I did so, I would have had more options than iTunes or podomatic to publish my podcast.
Criterion B:
I think that this Criterion was satisfactory, since I accomplished all the requirements that were listed on the paper. I wrote down detailed information about the topics I am interested in; so that it made easier for me to choose alter on. I am very interested in more psychological aspect than for example fashion or music. So, all my topics were related somehow to mentality of teenagers, such as how to bounce back or finding the right guy. I very detailed design could show me which one was the best and interesting. I chose ‘how to bounce back’, because no matter who you are we all go through the same process and pain (I specifically focused on teenagers, since they have lots of mood swings and feel emotionally very often). Through the designs, all I wanted to do was to somehow provide good and reliable information to those who are listening, and help them in any ways.
Criterion C:
Although my plan was to work over the winter break, due to my laziness I didn’t follow the plan at all; therefore I had to create another one. If I did work during the break, I would not have been in a hurry to finish my podcast in a week! My second plan was not that good as the first one, because it was not very detailed and specific. One of my weaknesses are time managing, so because of that I had only a week to do my podcast, which could lead into a poor quality podcast. Next time, I think that I should make my plan very detailed, but also first of all FOLLOW it without any procrastination.
Criterion D:
For this Criterion, I think that I did well, because taking a look at my test I think that I achieved my ‘goal’ of this project. First, I published my script on my blog so that my classmates could comment on it and suggest improvements, however they didn’t suggest any so I think my script was good enough? For recording the podcast, I read out the script in different ways, used different methods to add music in the background etc. Although one of the requirements was that I had to publish my test-podcast so that classmates could comment and suggest improvements, I did not publish any, however I recorded my podcast for about 18-20 times and I think that it was a better way than a podcast that was recorded only once or twice and published.
When I let my class mates listen to my podcast (it was already published), they said it was good and entertaining, however my voice sounded quite sad. First of all, I didn’t have the chance to change it because the podcast was already published, and secondly, even though I had the chance I would not change the tone of my voice, because for me if I was feeling upset and then listen to the podcast with such cheerful mood, it would have made me even more annoyed and angry. So, I thought that if I kept my voice low and calm, I would sound more serious and trustworthy, which would impact the listeners more.
One thing I would like to change in the future is to publish my test-podcast and let other comment on it. By doing that I could improve my podcast into a better one, since I think that others opinions and point of views are very important in order to improve something.
