The Wikipedia Project: Incoming Freshmen prove they Can Do history!
Recently, incoming freshman at Yuba College worked on a project as part of their Modern World History Course. The results were fantastic, turning what had been a historically 45% success rate course (defined as passing with a grade of “C” or better) into one where 81% of the initial students enrolled had earned a passing grade.
But more important - these students contributed to the historical thread on the Atlantic Slave Trade. What they were tasked to do was to bring to record, using Wikipedia as their public publishing outlet, a number of U.K., Bristol-based slave traders from the eighteenth century that then were not on Wiki pages.
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What these students accomplished were a myriad of skills: research and analysis, synthesizing data, writing for an audience, publishing, and more. They challenged themselves to face the the current debate of reparations by pinpointing precisely the number of humans each of the above individuals had transported from one continent to another to enter into a life of servitude.
The Wikipedia Project is proof positive that students wish to do, to be involved in current historical debates, and to make a difference. The authenticity of the project drove these Yuba College students to not only finish the project, but to finish the course.