1.
Using
Wikipedia
in
the
humanities
Gerard
Sasges,
Department
of
Southeast
Asian
Studies
BuzzEd
2013:
Teaching
with
Technology
NaDonal
University
of
Singapore,
January
10,
2013

2.
Who
I
am
• Historian
of
modern
Vietnam
• From
2002-­‐2011
I
directed
the
University
of
California’s
Study
Abroad
Program
in
Hanoi
• Joined
NUS
in
2012
• Been
experimenDng
with
technology
in
teaching
since
2006
as
a
way
to
create
project-­‐based,
real-­‐world
learning
opportuniDes
• Earlier
projects
include
• Project
Kiếm
ăn
• hWp://projectkieman.wordpress.com/
• hWp://projectkiemanvn.wordpress.com/

3.
SE5213
Revolt
and
Revolution
in
Southeast
Asia
• Taking
the
commitment
to
“real,”
project-­‐oriented
learning
that
had
shaped
my
earlier
courses
and
upping
the
“public”
element
• Inspired
by
a
short
and
very
pracDcally-­‐oriented
arDcle
in
Perspec'ves
on
History
by
Jeremy
Brown
and
Benedicte
Melanie
Olsen
enDtled
“Teaching
Tiananmen”
• hWp://www.historians.org/perspecDves/issues/2012/1204/
Teaching-­‐Tiananmen.cfm
• Which
led
me
to
another
arDcle
by
Roy
Rozenweig
enDtled
“Can
History
be
Open
Source?”
• hWp://chnm.gmu.edu/essays-­‐on-­‐history-­‐new-­‐media/essays/?
essayid=42
• Which
in
turn
led
me
to
the
list
of
essays
and
resources
at
• hWp://chnm.gmu.edu/essays-­‐on-­‐history-­‐new-­‐media/essays/

4.
A
poll
that
is
also
an
argument
• How
many
of
us
use
Wikipedia?
For
what?
• How
would
we
characterize
the
content
and
coverage?
• How
many
of
us
have
contributed
to
Wikipedia?
• Do
academics
have
a
role
to
play
in
Wikipedia?

5.
SE5213
module
design
• Students
free
to
choose
any
topic
related
to
“revolt
and
revoluDon”
broadly
understood.
• The
module
had
two
parts
corresponding
to
the
first
and
second
half
of
the
semester.
• In
part
one,
students
review
two
books
related
to
their
general
topic
and
upload
the
reviews
to
Goodreads/
Google
Books.
• In
part
two,
students
either
modify
an
exisDng
Wikipedia
entry
or
create
a
new
one.
• Each
part
requires
students
to
do
an
outline,
draf,
and
peer
review
before
uploading
final
draf.
• Note:
while
the
module
was
organized
around
individual
projects,
it
could
just
as
easily
be
organized
around
group
work.

6.
What
we
learned
from
the
book
reviews
• Useful
preparaDon
for
Wikipedia
entry
(usually)
• Challenging
• Argument
• Context
• length
• Could
be
used
on
its
own

7.
What
we
learned
from
the
Wikipedia
entry
• Importance
of
clear
wriDng
• Importance
of
clear
organizaDon
• Importance
of
citaDons/sources
• The
challenges
of
the
“Neutral
Point
Of
View”
(NPOV)
• A
different
way
of
wriDng
• On
one
level
true
• Students
have
to
idenDfy
least
biased
sources,
synthesize
available
informaDon
into
a
meta-­‐”story”,
idenDfy
and
explain
important
debates
• On
another
level
completely
false
• Students
learn
in
a
very
concrete
way
that
the
narraDve
is
the
argument
• have
to
make
crucial
choices
about
where
to
start
and
end
their
story,
what
to
put
in
and
what
to
leave
out

8.
Challenges
• Wikipedia
is
a
clunky
interface
• Too
much
freedom?
• The
eternal
challenge
of
the
peer
review
• Was
it
too
much
work?

9.
Successes
• All
of
our
work
had
a
context
and
a
public
• We
made
a
genuine
contribuDon
to
improving
the
quality
and
coverage
of
popular
resources
like
Google
Books
and
Wikipedia
• We
wrote
and
we
got
creaDve
• We
got
involved
in
controversy
• We
changed
history
(and
people
actually
read
it)!
• We
did
projects
that
were
meaningful
to
us
(and
maybe
meaningful
to
society)

10.
• hWp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burmese_resistance_movement_1885-­‐1895
• hWp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurgency_in_Aceh
• hWp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peasant_revoluDon_in_Thailand
• hWp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-­‐Arqam
• hWp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_Thai_student_uprising
• hWp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rohingya_insurgency_in_Western_Burma
• hWp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saminism_Movement
• hWp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagong_Tasi
• hWp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saya_San
• hWp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_RevoluDonary_Youth_League
• hWp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Lorena_Barros
• (1:
Main
page)
hWp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mat_Salleh_Rebellion
and
(2:
Brief
separate
page)
hWp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mat_Salleh
• hWp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petagas_War_Memorial
• hWp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OperaDon_Spectrum
• hWp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patani_(region)
• hWp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_in_Laos
(SecDon
on
Buddhism
&
the
Pathet
Lao
• hWp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siamese_revoluDon_of_1932
• hWp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Kahar_Muzakkar
• hWp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_sumatra_revoluDon
• hWp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hukbalahap_Rebellion
• hWp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preman_(Indonesian_gangsters)
• hWp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nghe-­‐Tinh_Revolt

11.
For
discussion
• Ideas
for
improving
• How
to
adapt
to
other
modules
in
other
fields
• Anything
else
we
want
to
discuss