Categories
Digital

Peer-Reviewed Wikipedia?

Wikipedia-logo-en-big

So, can lecturers now stop saying “don’t use Wikipedia” … my motto has always been – fine to start there, really don’t want you to end there, but am even I going to have to rethink?

“Social and technological advances have brought about significant changes in methods of publication, particularly via a shift to electronic or online media,” she writes. “The openaccess publishing model is predicated upon that shift.

“In the past decade there has been a proliferation of free online information beyond the academic journal,” she continues, highlighting the user-generated Wikipedia, the world’s largest online encyclopedia, as one of the most prominent examples.

“Of its more than 4 million articles in English, over 3,800 are featured, meaning they have undergone a peer-review process and are considered well-written, comprehensive, well-sourced, neutral, and stable.”

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Categories
Life(style)

#AdventBookClub: Day 8: Surprising Futures

Primrose_in_snow“Surprise!”

That’s how I might feel if I saw a primrose peeking out of some snow… although maybe not so much over these past few years!

There’s encouragement in both the readings today – Glusenkamp draws on the story of the 5 loaves and the fishes to say that there are constant surprises on the journey with Jesus, but that there is always more than enough for all…

Maggi Dawn encourages us to think about new directions that our lives can take, and that our imaginations don’t need to be limited to thinking that everything needs to be 100% new – there is continuity with the old … something that reminds me of a guided retreat with Brian Draper just before I moved to Durham – that moving there did not mean a loss of everything/everybody from Winchester .. particularly poignant as I’m spending the weekend here!

As I went for a wander through the Christmas Market yesterday – saw some from my church here manning the stall at the end of this busy stretch – and pray that they can help many see a future joy in life:

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Life on the journey can be tough, and I’m finding it particularly so at the moment, but Maggi’s book draws on Genesis 11 to show how if we trust God, and follow where he believes he’ll take us – even if it means to leave the familiar behind – we’ll gain a vision for the future that will inspire and energise us.

So to finish with a thought from Pam (always encouraging to hear that those who are ordained may have protested too…):

That’s something he calls us all to do. The direction for each of us may be different, but God has chosen each of us for something.  None of that embarrassing waiting in a line to be picked like in PE lessons…

Categories
Academic Digital

University Social Media Untrustworthy?

social-media-funConsidering that many marketing departments in Universities are still influenced by those who found their feet in old media, am not too surprised by this… social media is all about relationships/building trust…:

Prospective students are keen to engage with their university through social media channels, with one fifth of students saying that universities don’t make enough use of social media in recruitment, which meant they currently didn’t expect or look for information there.

What’s more, many of the students we surveyed were clueless that their chosen university even had a Twitter or Facebook account – showing that there is a need for universities to ensure their social media presence is clearly signposted to attract the widest audience.

There is also a question to be asked about what kind of content is relevant for social media profiles. We found that fewer than one in five students were influenced by university Twitter accounts and only one in four were influenced by Facebook pages or blogs.

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