Wiki what?

The assignment this week was to edit/add to a Wikipedia article. At first, this was the most confusing, and I didn't really understand our expectations. Were we expected to edit an article, create our own, or add to one? Where were we supposed to find the information about topics we don't know much about? Wikipedia is one of the most confusing websites to work with, and not to mention the different code words like 'anchor', and 'stubs'. I guess it makes sense to make it confusing to work with..that way not 'everyone and their dog' decides to add articles to wiki. I even found it difficult to pick a topic. I thought to myself, "what do I know? I'm just a university student". I began writing about 'bean salad', and I was excited because I was going to add in different nutritional tips about how good beans are for a person. However, once I realized I have never actually eaten a bean salad it was going to be difficult to write about it. Thus, I looked and looked., until I just went with something I thought I knew about. 'Hypergymnasia', I have never heard of this word until I started this assignment. It's just a fancy word for excessive exercise, sports anorexia, anorexia athletica; so many different words, and all meaning the same thing.

I started to enjoy researching more about my topic, because there is always more to learn. Even if you think you know everything there is about something; learning never stops. I got onto a few websites that I visit regularly like dietitians of Canada, forums for those with ED, and I find it very interesting to read everyone's opinion. The daughter, mother, father, sibling, grandparent, friend, classmate, researcher, doctor, patient, who knows or is the someone who is going through an eating disorder. I found a few websites that I have never been to before appealing to read such as NEDIC (national eating disorder information centre).
From this assignment I have learned a lot more about hypergymnasia, and a few more other websites to add to my delicious clouds. 

I was looking through other students wiki pages when I first started out to get an idea of what we are expected to do, and I stumbled upon Linday's blog. I especially found her updated wiki page very educational. I can't believe 9 million people are in pre-diabetic or are diabetic. Wake up world!

In the end I really enjoyed this assignment because now I can say that I have added to Wikipedia. (To be honest I think we were all a little frightened to start this assignment because the majority of students use Wikipedia to find information..in this case we couldn't.)