Wiki Watch - Making Comparisons

From The Peopling of New York City: Harlem

I want to bring another wiki to your attention because it does such a great job of incorporating student perspectives. As I read it through I was informed, but I also smiled and was entertained. It is full of personality and personal experiences.

http://macaulay.cuny.edu/seminars/lobel08/index.php/Main_Page

I think the format could be much better but it did made me wonder about how we can incorporate some of our experiences in Harlem by simply editing some of the commentary that we already have made on this course blog.

For example, we have encountered many Harlem Perspectives/Voices. Those voices could be the people from the museum experience as well as the people from our tour. After all, we should take advantage of the fact that we have encountered:

• elder legends--Gertrude Jeanette and others who performed at the MNH
• a real estate owner
• a property owner
• an indigent man
• a tour operator/small business owner
• the head of the African market

I think that it would be easy enough to consolidate your impressions of these various characters as well as highlight their perspectives in an analytical way.

In other words, while we identify the objective information we need to present on Harlem, let's also try to image how we can best utilize the information/observations that we already have. This is important especially when you have found some of these voices particularly interesting/insightful/humorous. So when you think about assigning workload, you should also consider assigning someone to summarize the comments on the Harlem vist, the movie, and the museum visit. Your impressions, when wedded to analysis and delivered with panache, have the impression to really bring the wiki to life.

Read about scalping tickets at Yankee stadium here: http://macaulay.cuny.edu/seminars/lobel08/index.php/Boom_Times_%281900-1920s%29#Boom_Times_at_the_Stadium:_Scalping_the_albatross_that_is_bleacher_tickets...

Here is how the scalping experience was turned into something a bit more analytical: http://macaulay.cuny.edu/seminars/lobel08/index.php/Crumbling_Pedestal#Impressions_of_the_South_Bronx_Part_Two

Here are more thoughts on useful things we can think about from this site:

PRESENTATION I like parts of this site and dislike others immensely. What works/What doesn't work for you in terms of the individual pages?

GENTRIFICATION/CHANGE This group also had to deal with going into the South Bronx, a neighborhood stereotyped as "bad." How did they highlight this in a way that contributed to learning? http://macaulay.cuny.edu/seminars/lobel08/index.php/Crumbling_Pedestal#Impressions_of_the_South_Bronx_Part_Two

SERVICE LEARNING I also note that this group also got involved in community work by having a focus on being GREEN. Here is how they chose to incorporate it. Interesting to consider as we think about what our service learning page might look like: http://macaulay.cuny.edu/seminars/lobel08/index.php/Green_Link

NEIGHBORHOOD INSTITUTIONS This group reported back on neighborhood institutions. You might decide to assign a few people to go to the Apollo, for example. They might arrange to "interview" someone there. Here is the write up that these students did on an institution visit: http://macaulay.cuny.edu/seminars/lobel08/index.php/Boom_Times_%281900-1920s%29

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