Before this class I was confused about Wikipedia since some of the professors taught us that Wikipedia is editable from everyone so there can be many misleading. As well there is a bigger number of professors that supports the research in Wikipedia though. From my own experience I have had only positive experience and found only valuable information from it. Now that we have been going through Wikipedia a lot with this class and the information that this article gives to us I strongly agree that it is a great source of information. The article mentions that there is a complex and well stuffed system for dealing with disputes and misleading information in Wikipedia. There are also provided special tools to prevent vandalism. So in shorts there are organized sources that work for accuracy and against edit-warring, sock-puppetry and the like on Wikipedia.
Tag Archives: reflection
LaGuardia Community College Wagner’s Achieve
Brooklyn Public Library
Brooklyn Historical Society
End of the Semester Reflection
How do you view research differently after this class?
I used to look at research as such a tedious time consuming thing when it came to academic classes. I have always enjoyed researching jut not keeping track of what I came across. But now I view recording my research as something very important not only for me and the work that I do but for the individuals who will be taking my research a step further or to the next level, whether I know it or not, there may be someone who will be depending on my documented research. I am contributing to something much more bigger than I think.
How does a  geographic viewpoint impact your approach to research and understanding of place?
For me personally, it makes it so much more tangible and so much more interesting because whether the history of a place is verbally or literally recorded there is so much history to it, and that creates so many layers of research to be done. With something like a geographic location, I would rather try to obtain as many oral stories as I could, not everything is written in the books, sometimes you have to create your own research method in order to answer your question.
Will you use (and seek out) primary sources in the future? Why or why not?
I definitely will be seeking out primary sources in the future. And I will be doing that because it is a very reliable source and there is never any speculation or anything skeptical about the credibility of a primary source. And I have also been working on my own website for almost a year or so, so primary sources will be very vital to include.
How can research in general, and place-based research in particular) be made more engaging?
Research can be made more interactive by first allowing the pupils to come up with any topic of their choice, unrelated to the course and allowing them to come up a number of credible sources then evaluating their sources in class, maybe in a game like way and testing their knowledge on how to determine if a source is reliable and credible.
Reflection: “Wikipedia And The Death Of The Expert”
While a little on the lengthy side, “Wikipedia And The Death Of The Expert” by Maria Bustillos was a witty, well-written read that held my attention the entire time. In addition to being amusing, the content of the article was informative and could be related back to what we have been doing in class all semester. Throughout the semester we as a class have been using Wikipedia extensively. We have utilized Wikipedia both as a base for starting our research as well as adding research we found to be pertinent to the Vinegar Hill Wikipedia page. Contrary to most classes I have taken in the past, we were encouraged to look to Wikipedia as a starting point while performing research.
I especially liked when Bustillos discussed the benefits of viewing the history of Wikipedia pages. The history provides the viewer with additional insight to any potential controversies surrounding the topic that might exist. In addition, it provides a sense of transparency to how the page was formed. Unlike printed encyclopedias, the viewer can see who edits and contributes each piece of information. I think a sense of confidence in the material  develops when an option to see every single edit exists.
Annotated Bibliography
05. Using RECAP to evaluate the reading – Eamon Loingsigh The Power of Family Lore: Uncovering Brooklynâs âAuld Irishtownâ
The things that Eamon talks about in this article are relevant to my topic since he is giving information about Irishtown that later on became Vinegar Hill. This source helps on the research of my assignment but doesnât fill all my needs. The author and the publisher are trusted sources. The author is a dedicated writer and researcher of this neighborhood.
Eamon comes from the Loingsigh family that has witnessed the history of this neighborhood, the changes areaâs names, and the tough times that Americans gave to Irish. The currency of the source information is pretty reliable even though it was published nowadays, the content of it was taken by trusted sources like history books and family personal experiences.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle website is up-to-date source since it is dedicated to write the Brooklynâs history and everything else that has to do with this borough from 1841. Eamon comes from an Irish emigrant family that moved to Irishtown, Brooklyn, New York in 19th century. His parents and grandparents told him stories about Irishtown, he read books about it and did research online. I looked up some of his sources like the book Gotham and I did verify them.
In that part of Brooklyn were known the neighborhoods like Dumbo, Vinegar Hill, Brooklyn Heights and Navy Yard, but Irishtown wasnât recognized as an actual place in official records. This made the author to write about it. Creating this source came down to his family, they told him stories about Irishtown. Nobody knew much about it at that time since the computers and internet didnât exist, so it wasnât easy to look things up.
04. The First Visit in Vinegar: Site Report #1
Hypotheses about Vinegar Hill 1820-1870, Reflection # 5
Me and my group was given time period of 1820 to 1870, in technological developmental part, we realized that still in vinegar hill houses reflect Italian styles brown stones, iron railings and boot scrapers. We found some signs of ferries paths which were leading to industries as well, some traces of gas lamp and form of electricity  also found. Not only that we also found few transportation development in 1830 by civil and military engineer David Bates Douglas, who introduced traffic sic lanes, one for carts, one for light carriages and third one for pedestrians in two directions. For Civic & Private Organization part we found that the name today Brooklyn used to call “The Government Of Village Of The Brooklyn”. Secondly we found that information they used to capture in Brooklyn library, information like taxes, land record etc.