User talk:Edprofessor5302

Welcome

Welcome!

Hello, Edprofessor5302, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your messages on discussion pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question on this page and then place {{helpme}} before the question. Again, welcome! Cirt (talk) 18:53, 2 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Good luck on your college project! 903M (talk) 00:31, 3 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

On school project

Welcome to Wikipedia! It's a good idea to invest time in editing wikipedia before starting a school project, so you'll be familiar with the rules and customs of the encyclopedia and know what kinds of projects will be helpful and provide a good learning experience. It's hard to answer your question without knowing which articles have been deleted, but my guess is that it had to do with the notability criteria- a lot of people try to create articles about their own teachers and professors on Wikipedia, and not all of them are so notable that an encyclopedia needs an article about them, so they get deleted quickly. You should read the criteria yourself, and then teach them to your students, letting them know that, to avoid article deletion, the first version of the article they save must include, at bare minimum, a clear assertion of notability and an independent source (not a university bio, but journal articles or books about the person). This should be a good opportunity for you to teach them about the importance of citing sources, if they've been losing articles because they hadn't. Usually, when articles are deleted, a message is left on the talk page of the person creating it, and a shorter summary where the article was, explaining why the article was deleted, and this may also be helpful. -FisherQueen (talk · contribs) 17:15, 6 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hello!

Hey, just wanted to chime in and greet you and welcome you to Wikipedia. I just want you to know that I find what you are doing, using Wikipedia as an educational tool, a noble and wonderful thing. You should definately read Wikipedia:School and university projects, which will give you an overview of how to successfully work within the Wikipedia framework and to successfully integrate Wikipedia into the educational experience. You will likely get a wide range of responses at Wikipedia, and understand this is a symptom of how HUGE Wikipedia is... There are several million active users, and almost 2000 site administrators. Still, you will find that if you do things right, you will receive some wonderful support. Just some general tips for you as you embark on this endeavor...

Wikipedia is a working environment, and it will not stop for your students. Please do not be offended by this; this can be an excellent learning tool, but please understand that this will be a source of frustration for you and your students. If its at Wikipedia, it can and will be modified by other editors. Most editors have the best interests of the encyclopedia in mind, and any changes that get made to work you or your students do is because we have this common goal. Some of your work may be vandalised, but don't fret about that either. Wikipedia is very flexible, and vandalism can be removed in about 2 seconds. Its really not a huge problem.
Wikipedia has some very important principles that keep it working efficiently, and these rules are enforced universally in order that it may continue to work efficiently. Our five most important core values are The Five Pillars of Wikipedia, and the 3 central policies that govern the content of our site are verifiability, a neutral point of view and no original research. Wikipedia also has some strict inclusion criteria, and if articles are being deleted, it is likely because they are not up to standard.
As an academic yourself, you can understand the importance of scrupulously documenting your references and of using reliable sources to cite your work to. Wikipedia has a very high standard when it comes to this.
As one final note, we have had school projects in the past which have been very successful. One, run through a class at the University of British Columbia resulted in the creation and improvement of a huge number of articles, including 7 good articles and 3 featured articles here at Wikipedia. You may want to contact the coordinator of that project, User:jbmurray. They will likely have some marvelous insight on how to do it "right".

Good luck, and I am always availible to help in any way. Simply leave a note on my talk page, and I will do what I can to help! Cheers! --Jayron32.talk.contribs 17:37, 6 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'd like to also point out that your aim for the project was to counter the negative image of Wikipedia held by other teachers. Much of this image, which from the sounds of things you now share a certain part of, comes from a disconnect between how teachers (and other people) think Wikipedia works, and the reality of it. However, I think it's safe to say that everyone who has commented here, and in response to your original question, along with a large number of other editors, would be quite happy to help bring the two together in as harmoniously a way as possible. Most editors have a link to their talk page in their signature - the default one looks like (talk), mine looks like (Say hi!), others you might have to examine a bit before you find a link that points to a page with User_talk: in the address, but in all cases you can go to that talk page and leave a message for that person. If you want to get the attention of editors in general, there are a few ways - besides the Help desk, which you've already found, you can add {{helpme}} to this page followed by a question and someone will come along in time. I hope we can get things sorted out in time for the project to be completed. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 22:57, 6 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]