W14. What did I learn in this course? - Yeonju Heo

   I learned about Wikipedia in this semester class. I wrote an article in Wikipedia last semester, but I did not know much about Wikipedia. But this semester, I wrote articles and learned more about what Wikipedia is. I was able to learn about Wikipedia through a variety of topics, including the characteristics of Wikipedia, people writing articles on Wikipedia, copyright, biased Wikipedia.
   The most interesting of these was that many people are working for 'free' for Wikipedia. At first, I could not understand why people work for Wikipedia free of charge. However, I heard the opinions of other students about the reason, and I was able to comprehend them by writing my own articles.
   What was most beneficial was about copyright. I work mainly on the team project to make the presentation file. I had trouble finding the photos. The sites that provide free pictures often did not have my favorite pictures. I learned about Creative Commons. I was able to see what kind of logo people allowed and I also uploaded my photos so that others could freely use them. So I was able to properly find and use photographs that are not in violation of copyright in other classes. That part was really beneficial. And I was proud to think that someone else would use my photo usefully and gladly.

   I was able to experience collective intelligence by learning about Wikipedia, a space where collective intelligence is realized, writing articles directly, and reading related contents. Theories learned only are easily forgotten. However, this class was not only a theory but also a practical skill. I will not forget about this class and Wikipedia that I experience directly.