User:LMCinHK

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[edit] U21C0002 Human Security @ The University of Hong Kong (2006)

[edit] Background

To aid other teachers who are thinking about incorporating Wikipedia into their course, I have started this page to describe what we are doing in our undergraduate human security course this semester. This course is part of the U21 Programme in Global Issues. The U21 Programme in Global Issues is a multi-disciplinary curriculum designed to allow students to work collaboratively with students from one of the 5 participating universities: University of Hong Kong (China), University of British Columbia (Canada), University of Auckland (New Zealand), University of Melbourne (Australia), and the University of Nottingham (U.K.). The programme seeks to provide graduates with globally relevant knowledge and skills which will enable them to live and work successfully within the societies they will help lead.

For this assignment, U21/HKU Human Security students have been placed in teams to contribute substantive information on Human Security to Wikipedia. The objective of this assignment (which comprises 25% of the final grade) is to create a comprehensive and balanced Human Security Wikipedia article. The instructor started a Wikipedia article entitled Human security then placed students in teams with specific parameters for how to expand that article. Each team is responsible for a different facet of human security on which to elaborate and students are evaluated not only on their written contributions, but also on the effectiveness of their editing. The idea is for students to learn from the advice of their own teammates, but to also benefit from the editorial feedback of fellow Wikipedia contributors.

The specific instructions given to students are reproduced below (although I have withheld the student names in order to protect their privacy.) My thanks to Piotr Konieczny / Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus and Kevin Zollman / kzollman who both kindly agreed to allow me to adopt some of their student instructions from their respective university project web pages located at <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:School_and_university_projects/Pitt-Societies-2005> and <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:School_and_university_projects/Indiana_CMCL>.

[edit] Spring 2006 Human Security Wikipedia Assignment Instructions

Important Note: Make sure you are logged into your account before making any edits. If you are not logged in, I cannot verify who has done the edits, thus I will be unable to recognize your work and grade you on it. In other words, if you do any edits while not logged in, I will not count those edits toward your grade in this course.
Each team has been given a group of Human Security topics to expand upon which include both conceptual and practical categories. It will be up to each team to decide which team member will write on which topic and how that topic should be organized. These topic assignments are meant to be rough indications of relevant Human Security topics. Each team is welcome to suggest changes in topic headings and or categories as they see fit. Each team will also have to work together to ensure that their contributions fit into the overall article and with the other teams contributions.
TEAM 1 will be responsible for:
  • The Concept of Human Security
    • HS Definition & Categories
    • HS Historical Development
  • The Practice of Human Security:
    • HS & Terrorism
    • HS & Infectious Disease
TEAM 2 will be responsible for:
  • The Concept of Human Security:
    • HS Relationship with Traditional Security
    • HS Relationship with Deveopment Studies
  • The Practice of Human Security:
    • HS & Arms Control
    • HS & Global Warming
    • HS & Humanitarian Intervention
To complete this assignment, each of you will not only have to research and write on your respective topic, but of equal importance will be the role you will play in editing these topic as well as related topics. As an editor, you will need to perform "due diligence" on the content of the article (is the article accurate, fair, cohesive, understandable, focused on the right things, etc.?) as well as to iron out problems in writing. If you think that major changes should be made (e.g., adding or correcting points in the argument; reorganizing the argument), then the courteous procedure is first to suggest the changes to the original author. That gives the author a chance to make his/her own changes or to approve the changes you are about to make.
Moreover, you might discover that much of your writing and or editing takes place under a category that is related/linked to Human Security, but not in the Human Security article itself. This is fine. In fact, it might turn-out that the Human security article remains relatively short and that most of our efforts are better spent providing a fuller explanation, adding citations or simply correcting existing articles related to Human Security.
To facilitate, team cooperation, I have set up a Wikipedia discussion board for each team on our course website. I encourage you to use this tool to help organize your team efforts. These will be public discussion boards, so that each team can also communicate with the other team to ensure that each team's contribution is incorporated into the final article as seemlessly and effectively as possible.
Your grade for this assignment will consist of a team and individual grade. I would expect that each team member will contribute to this assignment in different ways and that each team will work out an equitable division of labor. I will be evaluating your individual contribution by reading through your User Contribution page. Your team grade will be based on the final product for your respective topics and your peer evaluation assessment. To that end, each member of the class will have to complete and upload a peer evaluation form for this assignment by XXXX.
Remember I can see every edit you make, so don't make any edits you don't want me to see. If you do anything disruptive you will not receive any points. Don't worry about making mistakes, however, everybody does!
'Getting Started'
I encourage you to GET STARTED PRACTICING!!! Writing and editing on Wikipedia can be very intimidating initially (it was for me), so don't wait until the last minute to get used to editing. You will have your hands full composing your article contribution as the due date for this assignment approaches, so start practicing now.
If you are stuck, and looking for help, please come to the Wikipedia Boot Camp, where experienced Wikipedians can answer any queries you have! Or, you can just type {{helpme}} on your user page, and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions.
Here are a few more good links to help you get started:
Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you have any questions, check out Wikipedia:Where to ask a question
'Useful Tips'
Some other useful tips: whenever you are done with an edit and want to save a page, fill out the edit summary box and view a preview of the page after your edit to make sure it looks as you actually want it to look. Only then click the "Save Page" button. You may find the page history tool and watchlist tools to be very useful when you want to check what changes by other editors have been made to the article(s) you are working on.
If you are just correcting a typo or making a minor formatting change, check off the box in the wiki editing form for "minor" revision. When creating a complex page, it is best to work in a word processor or text-editing program (so you retain a master copy), and then cut-and-paste into the wiki editing form.
However, before you create the new article, make sure it has the appopriate name - it you haven't so far, you may want to read Wikipedia:Naming conventions. And if you are unsure how to create a new article, you will want to read Wikipedia:Starting a new page.
Also, when creating a new article, you should make sure it fulfills several important criteria
  • It is important that an article is not orphaned - i.e. it should be linked from several other articles. To learn more about this, take one of the existing orphaned articles and link them into appropriate places. See Wikipedia:Orphaned articles for more details on this.
  • It is important that an article belongs to a category. See Wikipedia:Category for more details.
  • It is likely the article you have created is a stub. In that case, make sure you assign it to the appopriate stub category.
  • If the article is long enough, it should have an introductory paragraph. See Wikipedia:Lead for details on what such a paragraph should look like.
You should expect that I, other students, your friends, and even (or especially) other Wikipedia editors (not affiliated with our course) will leave you various messages on your talk pages. When working on this assignment, you should log on to Wikipedia and check your messages as often as you check your email. Whenever you have a new message and are logged to Wikipedia, you will see a large orange message 'You have new messages' on every Wikipedia page you access. To make this message disappear, you should click on it and read the message. Note that it is customary to leave new messages at the bottom of the talk/discussion pages, and to reply to somebody's messages on their talk pages. If you want to leave somebody a message, make sure you are editing their talk page, not their user page. Remember to sign your talk and discussion messages.
'More Tips: Adding, Removing, & References'
If you've found information about your topic that was not in the article or was found to be wrong, you have struck gold! You should insert that information into the article. Start editing the article by clicking the "edit this page" tab at the top of the page and then insert your information. Please put it in what looks like the best place and write it in a coherent fashion. Also, please add a reference to where you found it by following the instructions for adding references in the next section. Once your finished editing put something in the edit summary box and click "Show preview". Take a look at your article and make sure it looks the way you want it to. If it does, click the save page button and you're done!
If you found something in the article that is false, you have found something very important that should be fixed. If the information is widely believed, but you have a source that says it isn't true edit the page and change it to say something like "it is widely believed that... but in fact... " and add your reference like you would above. If on the other hand, you've found something completely false. Remove it from the article by deleting the sentence. You should ALSO put a note on the "talk page" for that article explaining what you removed and cite the source you found that proved it was false. You can get to the talk page by clicking on the "discussion" tab at the top of the page. Then click the little "+" that is next to the discussion page and add your comment. If you don't add something to the talk page, someone might think your just vandalizing and will reinsert the false thing.
There is a good chance that you will find something in your article that was not cited. This is bad practice and you now have a chance to fix it. Before adding citations, look over the page on how to cite material on wikipedia. I don't care what format you use, but try to make it fit the article. Go to your page, click on the "edit this page" tab and add your citations. Once your finished, add an edit summary and click "show preview". Take a look at your changes and make sure they look good. If they do, click the "Save page" button and you're done.
Do not plagiarize!!!! Attribute the words, images, music, or other material that you are directly borrowing (quoting, copying, etc.) from external sources. Failure to do so in an academic context is plagiarism, and is a serious offense. An additional reason to attribute sources carefully is to allow readers to verify your research by going to an original source and seeing whether they agree with your conclusions (the equivalent of "reproducing an experiment" in the sciences). Depending on the situation, attribution can take the form of direct mention of a source in your argument, a full citation in a note, an abbreviated citation backed up by a bibliography, or a link so long as it is clear in context where you are borrowing from.
Wikipedia thanks you for adding information, and invites you to stay and contribute. If your interested in being more involved, check out the Community Portal and dive right in. Happy writing and editing!

I'm not sure what the rules are for using images within Wikipedia articles? where can I find non-copyrighted images to use?

Thanks. LMCinHK 08:14, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

There are no rules for using images in articles, per se, but the image should be free (or if it isn't possible to get a free image, Wikipedia:Fair use, but fair use is very complicated and I don't recommend getting involved in it) and be relevant to the subject matter. For finding non-copyrighted images, you can take pictures yourself, or see Wikipedia:Images#Obtaining images. Also see Wikipedia:Uploading images for more information. --Rory096 08:23, 2 May 2006 (UTC)