Encyclopedia v. Wikipedia

For the Hidden Jewel project, Jill and I are presenting on a bakery in Old Town. I searched the topic of “Old Town, Chicago” within Wikipedia and the Encyclopedia of Chicago. Several authors were seen to consistently contribute to the Wikipedia page. This group made up the majority of contributions. The other contributions were singular and made by registered users and non-users with fairly equal frequency. The Encyclopedia of Chicago entry was written by one Amanda Seligman, who contributes regularly to this Encyclopedia.

The Wikipedia entry was created on Nov. 7th, 2005, and has been regularly updated until the latest update on October 11th, 2007. This information required a little bit of digging through the History tab. The Encyclopedia of Chicago article is copyrighted for 2005, but there is no specific date for when the article was created.

The Wikipedia article has two sources in its reference section. One of the references is clickable and takes you to a Government fact website. The Encyclopedia of Chicago article has three sources in its bibliography, none of them clickable. It is worth noting, however, that the amount of information in the Encyclopedia of Chicago article is much less than in the Wikipedia article. The Wikipedia article, for its relative size, should have many more sources than the Encyclopedia of Chicago.

Wikipedia has six external links, all of which are clickable and take you to a variety of pages ranging from a Chicago Reader article about Old Town to Old Town’s website, http://www.oldtownchicago.org/. Embedded within the text are links to other, related Wikipedia entries, for example, a page about St. Michael’s Church located within Old Town. The Encyclopedia of Chicago article contains no external links, but several internal links to related topics, such as the Old Town School of Folk Music.

The two articles are drastically different in the amount of information presented. The Wikipedia entry covers a wide range of topics - early history, the hippy years, photo galleries and pop culture references to Old Town. The Encyclopedia of Chicago focuses solely on history (though this seems to be an intentional theme). Even within the topic of history, however, the Wikipedia article contains more information.

In the discussion section of the Wikipedia page, several people took issue with items posted in the article. As a point of clarification, one person commented that Old Town and Old Town Triangle are two different neighborhoods with different bordering streets. Another person commented that the “trivia” section was inappropriately titled, and should be changed to “popular culture”. This user cited a Wikipedia rule to back his claim, and it appears that the appropriate changes were made. The Encyclopedia of Chicago article contains no such discussion board, at least not provided on the page of the article. This is, however, an article written by one authorized writer, not simply any person who wishes to contribute (as is the case with the Wikipedia article).

The Wikipedia page seems extremely useful, providing a breadth of information, pictures, and internal as well as external links. However, it lacks good citation and sources. Thus, any information taken from this page should be taken with a grain of salt, and if used for important situations should be checked against other sources. The Encyclopedia of Chicago article was also useful, but covered a very limit aspect of Old Town (its history only). Even for that subject, the amount of information was less than Wikipedia provided. However, this source seems more trustworthy, provided appropriate references for the amount of information given. All in all, I liked the Wikipedia article better, because the range of information was wider and the complexity of information more in depth.

Josh Zuke

11-30-07

America v. Americans

Mark Hertsgaard discusses in his book, "The Eagle's Shadow", the differences between America and Americans. The negativity felt about America by the world community is not toward the citizens of America, but toward the government of America, he argues.

I believe there is a huge difference between America and Americans. Although Americans have the fairly unique ability to shape and mold America to be what it ought be, we unfortunately do not often take the necessary action. Most people remain ill informed about politics, at home and particularly worldwide. Though in a generation where information is more readily available than ever, people choose to stay ignorant and apathetic. Less than half of the American population shows up to voting booths on Election Day. If we wish to create an America that is seen by the outside world the way we envision it, then we need to shape that America through action.

Trip to Chicago

Having spent the entirety of my 18 years of this life in St. Louis, Missouri, I knew very little about Chicago save its harsh winds and winters. Thankfully, Exploring Chicago is changing all of that. I am getting to know the city in which I will reside for the next four years even better than many people who have lived here for the entirety of theirs.

On Tuesday, September 25th, the Honors Exploring Chicago class went on a trip to Chicago. Groups of three were sent to different locations to take note of the area. I was sent to Millennium Park, and the following are some observations about what I saw.

The first thing I noticed coming upon Millennium Park by way of Monroe Street at Michigan Avenue was the architecture of the buildings surrounding the park. The design of the buildings had a classical feel. The limestone brought thoughts of the spirit of the Chicagoans after the great Chicago Fire, and the massive circular archways and pillars reminded me of a time when the focus was not merely on practicality, but of beauty in design. Not only are these sights breathtaking, they are also thought provoking as they sit next to mile-high sky scrapers made of metal and glass. The juxtaposition of new and old gives one a sense of history and how far we’ve come – Almost a nostalgia for a time one has never been in, and a pride for an accomplishment one has never been a part of. Take a moment to look at this picture of the Chicago Public Library, set against the background of modern buildings –

Upon entering the park, I witnessed another aspect of Chicago that has come to define its soul; the arts. There are sculptures here and there, each as intriguing as the next, but there is no better example of the arts than the theatre situated under an enormous metal sculpture. Were I a more proficient wordsmith I might attempt a description, but I believe I would only do a disservice. Following the adage, “A picture is worth a thousand words”, these thousand may be among the most inspiring I’ve ever heard -

Another, more subtle aspect of Chicago can be seen, rather heard, if one pays close attention. Conversations are being carried on in a plethora of languages. In only a couple of hours I noticed Chinese/Japanese (through my ignorance I cannot distinguish the difference), German, and Spanish, among others that I did not recognize. Signs read in at least 5 languages. This huge diversity of people is representative of the hub that is Chicago. People come from all around the world to make it here, and they preserve their culture when they arrive, making Chicago an amazingly intercultural city.

In closing, I will echo the sentiments of The Chairman of the Board; this truly is my kind of town.

Josh Zuke

09-26-07

Credit For Photos :

http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/illinois/chicago/library/113libraryext.jpg

http://paowang.com/blog/shamu/upload/millennium_park_theater1.JPG

Academic Honesty - An Article Response

In discussing the different aspects of cheating, I believe an important first step is to define the topic we are to discuss. Cheating can be viewed in a variety of ways; however, it has a specific definition in our context. A fitting definition for cheating is as follows –

1. Taking credit for information, material, or ideas that are not your own.
   
2. Breaking any individual classroom or overarching University rules on an assignment or exam.

Part one of the definition covers activities such as plagiarism (purposeful or inadvertent) on written assignments, using another student’s work for homework or essays, and copying another student’s answers for an exam. Part two of the definition covers activities such as using a cheat-sheet to better your score on an exam.

Donald L. McCabe discusses several different types of cheating in his article “It Takes a Village – Academic Dishonesty”. Direct cheating on an exam, plagiarism on written works, purchasing a paper through the internet, and others are all discussed. I believe that although all are clearly dishonest and wrong, there are varying degrees to which they are harmful. To copy a homework assignment from a friend may not necessarily reflect a lack of morals. It is not hard to imagine a hard working student with integrity who reads the material but forgets an assignment. That person sees a friend with the completed assignment 5 minutes before class and realizes the mistake they made and decides to copy it. Is that truly as bad as somebody who is willing to steal a copy of the test from the professor? Somebody who knowingly plagiarizes material and gives no credit? In the first example, at least consent was given by the party sharing information. In examples two and three, it is stolen.

I have personally seen many instances of cheating throughout my academic career. The most common type of cheating, in my experience, is when one student will give their homework to another student to copy before class. In many cases, students will “share” a work load. For example, three friends enrolled in the same course are each given the same three assignments. Each person will do one assignment and give it to the others to copy. There are other less common forms of cheating. They are more grievous; but I believe that unfortunately they are only less common because they are more risky, not because of their grievous nature. These include cheating on test, plagiarism, and buying essays. Common methods for cheating on tests are writing the answers on a cheat-sheet, putting the answers inside a clear pen (which when the tip is out stay hidden, but when retracted come into sight), writing the answers on the inside of a water bottle, saving files on computers that will be used to take a test, saving text files to an I-Pod, or recording MP3’s with the answers vocally expressed, then listening to the file as if it were a song on an MP3 player or CD player.

McCabe suggests several different methods to discourage academic dishonesty. Increased proctoring, using multiple versions of the exams, using plagiarism detection software and making harsher punishments are a few examples he gave. He stressed, however, that,

“…while such strategies are likely to reduce cheating, I can’t imagine many
people would want to learn in such an environment.”

He tells us, as my opinion echoes, that we are not simply trying to make students scared of being caught. Society’s goal should be to make students who are good citizens, who realize that academic integrity is a huge responsibility to uphold, and that to break the honor code is flat out wrong. If individuals govern themselves using the morals they have been taught by family, peers, and society and the morals they have shaped themselves through education, we needn’t worry about discouraging cheating in the classroom. The focus must be on cutting off the problem before it begins.

Josh Zuke

09-12-07