This link has been bookmarked by 8 people . It was first bookmarked on 05 Feb 2007, by Eric Bouvier.
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08 May 10
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Vandalism is any addition, removal, or change of content made in a deliberate attempt to compromise the integrity of Wikipedia. The most common types of vandalism include the addition of obscenities to pages, page blanking, or the insertion of bad jokes or other nonsense. Fortunately, these types of vandalism are usually easy to spot.
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. Albert was born in the hoodlum area of Los Angeles, but his parents were from Sweden. One day some gangsters found him and they tought [sic] him how to rap. The famous rap song, "We Fly High" was originally by Albert Einstein, but after he died, some other gangsters claimed to have written it. One day his mom was beaten by a gang in a dark alley. After that incident, Albert refused to rap anymore.
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Sure enough, when she hit "refresh" a new version of the page loaded, that had been reverted back to the "last good" version by WikiPedia user Antandrus. We were both amazed at how fast this update occurred. I HAD expected a WikiPedia Einstein page watcher would revert and 'undo' those edits to the page at some point, but less than 60 seconds was beyond my expectation of editing speed! This was a classic lesson in the ways of WikiPedia, our abiding need for information literacy, and the value of a community-based resource that is policed and constructed by a dedicated base of users.
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When you peruse the history page for a WikiPedia entry like Einstein's, which was recently "locked" so that "unregistered or newly registered users" can't edit or contribute to it, you see a large amount of edits by anonymous folks (identified only by their IP addresses) and subsequent "reverts" by other WikiPedia authors acting (officially or unofficially, but most often on a volunteer basis I suspect) as "policemen of accuracy."
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ourteen minutes after making the vandalized edit about Albert Einstein being born in "the hoodlum area of Los Angeles" WikiPedia user "Bobthebuilderfixitup" was blocked from ever logging in and making further WikiPedia edits by WikiPedia user (and administrator) Edgar181
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Additionally, Edgar181 is clearly a defender of accuracy and truth when it comes to the life of Albert Einstein! My thanks to Edgar181, Antandrus and others who are working to keep WikiPedia as vandal and troll-free as possible.
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If you have not done this before, spend some time comparing edited versions on the history page of a WikiPedia article, like I've discussed here. I think this is an activity we should introduce all our teachers and students to. It raises the importance of being critical consumers of information and not believing something simply because "it's on the web" or "it's in an email message." Today more than ever, none of us should take digital information at face value.
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resource than a traditional textbook or encyclopedia. In many ways it has greater value as a digital information resource, but it also requires a different set of critical literacy skills than those many people were taught in schools in the pas
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In addition to accessing resources like WikiPedia in our web 2.0 or read/write web era, I strongly contend that learners of all ages should be encouraged to help CONSTRUCTIVELY write articles for WikiPedia. I was excited last week to discover the WikiProject Oklahoma, and hope that in the context of creating a variety of digital resources relating to the Oklahoma Centennial this year we'll be able to get many students and teachers engaged in collaboratively adding to this growing resource about our state.
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14 Jul 09
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09 Nov 08
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21 Sep 08
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05 Feb 08
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06 Feb 07
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05 Feb 07
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