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My students should check out the Wikipedia:WikiProject Schools page.

This page has been started by the web design students at Seymour High School. You can visit our blog at shsweb.blogspot.com. We are trying to make the page within our class setting. We know the page isnt perfect yet, but its part of the learning process we hope to use in class. Hopefully we will learn the protocal quicker so we can get some pages up.

Contents 1 Wikipedia isn't a classroom 2 Yes it is a classroom 2.1 Good Examples 2.2 Lesson Two 2.3 Personal attacks against me - rather pathetic 2.4 Issues 2.5 Lesson 3: the Wisdom of crowds 3 Edits

[edit] Wikipedia isn't a classroom

I'm sorry, but Wikipedia has specific guidelines. Other wiki software is avalible if you are learning the process, but Wikipedia is not meant as a classroom. Unless you are contributing to the resource in compliance with the guidelines you agreed to by joining the site, I will continue to revert the article to edits that do comply with Wikipedia policy. Plasticbadge 21:00, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Yes it is a classroom

I think the Wikipedia is meant to be a classroom.

The main page for wikipedia says this....

Most youths will likely at some point become involved in interactive online activities. For educators, youths' involvement with Wikipedia provides an opportunity to survey youths' understanding of online safety, and to teach appropriate practices. Educators can use Wikipedia as a way of teaching students to develop hierarchies of credibility that are essential for navigating and conducting research on the Internet. Wikipedia provides an opportunity for teachers to discuss the concept of the public domain. Wikipedia is an opportunity to participate in an open community that relies primarily on mutual respect and cooperation, but which is not related to familiar authority figures some youths might tend to oppose.

So we might have some disagreement. But the wikipedia community seems to think this is an appropriate place to learn the collaborative process. We are doing this on a page that had not been created yet and students are eager to create. Give us a chance. I think you would be much more productive if you gave suggestions here for the students to read rather than highjacking the page. I do beleive wikipedias procedure is pretty clear for newcomers  :Don't bite the newcomers BrandtSchneider 21:14, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia is a collaborative project, not a classroom for learning the Wiki program. Learn, but I'm not obliged to let sloppy work stand. For example leaving "Fairfield" as the location. I'm gald you want to contribute, but keep in mind Wikipedia at large and the article in specific are not you your personal pet. Please feel free to add content as you see fit, but I will continue to edit the content to Wikipedia's standards. - Plasticbadge 21:20, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

Those errors were being worked on and we had a fire drill. Then an evacuation of the school (everyone went home). Again, give us a chance. I was ready to proofread everything as soon as we got back in the building. We are not sloppy.BrandtSchneider 21:27, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

Welcome students!!!! If you want to practice coding, go to Wikipedia:Sandbox. If you want to learn how to participate in an online collaboration project, you are going to have to learn to collaborate with people who don't go to Seymour High School (Connecticut). The standard of this particular online collaborative community (Wikipedia) include that (1) ANYONE can edit and (2) there are certain documentation/sourcing/formatting standards that the entire wikipedia community will follow. The first lesson you Seymorians should learn is to play well with others. . MPS 21:32, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

Again, just give us a chance to get started. This isnt a contact sport.BrandtSchneider 21:51, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

playing well with others is certainly the lesson Wikipedia has taught me. Coul we contain future class discussions to one or two discussion headings in the future, please? This place will otherwise get very cluttered very quickly. -Plasticbadge 21:43, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Good Examples

Hey Seymorians. I would recommend you take a look at some other examples to see what Wikipedia articles on schools tend to look like. Douglas_S._Freeman_High_School comes to mind, but also other schools in the category called Category:High schools in Virginia would be good examples.

Thank you. This is exactly what we have been doing. We have been looking at pages, checking guidelines, etc...We are trying very hard to edit the pages correctly. Just give us a chance to get them up.BrandtSchneider 21:49, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Lesson Two

The first thing I would suggest about improving this page is the intro paragraph. Why is this school notable? MPS 21:51, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

Thank you for the comment. THIS is the type of help from the community I was hoping for. many students HW is to research this and add to the page tomorrow.BrandtSchneider 21:53, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

you are welcome... As you go along, ask yourself what other questions somone unfamilar with this school might have. That's what shows notability. Why was it founded? Who is it named after... History section should answer questions about the past, not about what is "currently" going on. PS use asterisks to respond with a bullet/ and colon to indent. MPS 21:57, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Personal attacks against me - rather pathetic

It might interest you to know that some of your students have vandalized my userpage, calling me a "douchebag", a "fag", and a "bloody wanker". I'm not sure what kind of class you are running, but from what i can tell it is quite out of control. I've stepped back to let you make your changes after talking with some members of the community here, but it might be a good opportunity to discuss internet etiquette with your students. - Plasticbadge 14:47, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

Hey, listen. I deleted the comments from the pages within 90 seconds and you keep putting them back. The students were disciplined and that should be the end of the story. I think it was in everybody's best interest to delete the comments. If you keep them up I am not sure your point is valid.BrandtSchneider 15:39, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

The talk page should be a full record of the making of an article. Wikipedia is run on a set of protocols, and is not subject to your personal taste in appropriate language. See the policy below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_is_not_censored

Do not delete "objectionable" content in the future. Wikipedia's policy is very clear about that. - Plasticbadge 16:58, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

Ok now that we got that cleared up, what needs to change about the article? How aboput establishing notability... MPS 17:47, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

I think a good way to start might be to mention notable Alumni (aka persons with established Wikipedia entries). keep in mind that some of the minimalists (I would not count myself among them) on Wikipedia will tag this article for deletion unless notability is established. MPS is entirely right that notability should be a priority. - Plasticbadge 18:30, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

We are working on that right now. We are exploring what is "notable". You can be very notable locally, but not globally. Thanks for the input.BrandtSchneider 18:46, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Issues

I've been keeping an eye on this article, and I thought I've give some feedback. First, there is no need for external links for the track schedule and directory - both pages are accessible through the main school site. Please remove these redundant links. Second, there are no citations for most of the information given. If you don't cite your sources for the content in the article, the information can be removed for that reason alone. All information must be verifiable by external sources - no original research. Another issue is the overly colorful language that infringes on the neutral point of view, like "456 scholars in nine spacious rooms". In Wikipedia, this should be "465 students in nine rooms of x feet sq dimension". For more information on Wikipedia's policy of NPOV, please read this - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view

Additionally, I noticed that someone changed the color of the text in "gold" under school colors. Unfortunately, this kills the link and serves no informational purpose. Please restore the link. Lastly, what progress has been made regarding notability? While I agree with you that local notability is significant, Wikipedia tends to define notability in terms of its own articles or in some quantified way (eg existing articles about alumni or a study that places the school at the top or bottom of some list, etc.). Notability is very important, as if it is not established there are members of this community that WILL put it up for deletion. Good luck with your changes. - Plasticbadge 15:15, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Another idea: Is the mission statement really necessary? It is massive,resists easy formating, and is easily available on the school's webpage. Not only that, but its is fairly common - most hs's have msiion statements that speak about improving character etc. It should probably be struck IMhO. - Plasticbadge 15:54, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

I think it depends on if you think mission is central to the identity of the school. Does mission define a school or do alumni and buildings?BrandtSchneider 16:08, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

To an extent, sure. My biggest problem is that the information is one of the main links in the school's website and would not at all be difficult to find. Also, it doesn;t seem many other school articles include this information (or if they do it is concise). It really should be cut down or cut out. - Plasticbadge 19:52, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Lesson 3: the Wisdom of crowds

The Wisdom of crowds: None of us is smarter than all of us. I have added stub and cleanup templates. This will accelerate the improvement of this article. MPS 14:35, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Edits

The Hope Club edits fit the school criteria as marked by wikipedia

Extracurricular activities — Mention the sports team(s) of the school and what is notable about them. Here is also a good place to mention specific traditions of school, like students' union/student council activities, a student newspaper, clubs, regular activities, etc. BrandtSchneider 01:34, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

In that case it should be matched with similar entries for those organizations. Standing alone it serves little purpose. If it is kept, I would hope that the bloat be cut down to the essentials. Listing every event every group has participated in is far from practical and will quickly balloon the article to unmanageable proportions. - Plasticbadge 02:42, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

Other entries should be added soon (after the holiday), if there is a wikpedia guideline for what you say (can't stand alone, serves little purpose) please attach it so we can follow those rules. I think we are pretty on target for the school guidelines. The HOPE club is THE notable club and reflects the vision and mission of the school(you have discouraged us not to list ALL the clubs, remember).BrandtSchneider 11:02, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

Also, I would note that simply putting "all citations can be found in refrence links" is not acceptable. Each fact must be directly sited to a page, not just directed to a collection of pages. It defeats the purpose of citation in the first place if the reader must personally check all the reference material himself. - Plasticbadge 02:44, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

That can be our next project, to footnote the paragraphs. We might even get it done today if we figure it out.BrandtSchneider 11:02, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

I'm trying hard to find to find other examples of references in CT school articles to model our work after. I cant find any. I think we are way ahead of the curve. Perhaps, plasticbadge you can help us on this?BrandtSchneider 12:13, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

Yearbook edit: Colin, make sure you include notable information if you include the yearbook.BrandtSchneider 15:38, 22 November 2006 (UTC)