In the project “Cultural history as a final high school essay”, we work together with Wikipedia Sweden and the Nordic Museum. The project gives secondary school students hands-on experience in digital source criticism and in how to write fact-based articles on Wikipedia.
In an increasingly digital world, source criticism is more important than ever. Learning to critically review Wikipedia articles is then a valuable skill given that it is one of the most visited websites in the world. A good way to do this is to update the content of the encyclopedia yourself. The project is carried out as a part of the students’ final essay in secondary school, as one of the last steps before graduation.
In the project, teachers guide their students in writing articles about business and cultural history in Wikipedia. Based on unique source material from the Centre for Business History as well as the archive and reference literature of the Nordic Museum, the students learn to write for encyclopedias while they at the same time practice digital source criticism.
Are you also a teacher and/or supervise students at the secondary school level or during their final essay? Please contact our archive pedagogue Anahi Davila at anahi.davila@naringslivshistoria.se to see if we can assist in your work.
