Wikipedia?!?

[Ray Maseman]

Who out there is deeply disturbed by Wikipedia? Who out there finds it a useful tool?

Today I attended a HS librarian inservice on teaching research strategies. Wikipedia got dumped on a lot. Once again, I found myself wondering why their is so much antipathy towards Wikipedia among educators. Here you have an information source that is easily accessible (unless you have no web access at all), attractive to students, free, available in numerous languages, and participatory. Yet somehow the fact that it is not perfectly authoritative, and that it may contain content from non-experts, means it is to be treated with derision. I hear teachers (including librarians) complain that information on Wikipedia is invalid because there is a perception that there is no quality control. Because some articles may contain errors, anything from Wikipedia is to be discounted.

I think the grousing over Wikipedia misses an opportunity. It makes a great starting point for research on a topic, as well as being a platform for all kinds of learning opportunities related to checking information. Most importantly of all, students are already using it, so it would be great if they could do so effectively.

[[e-mail]]

Hi Ray,

Wikipedia is a tool. And like all tools it can be used well or badly. My more formal take:

http://www.doug-johnson.com/dougwri/wikipedia-ban-it-or-boost-it.html

Oh, I am personally a great Wikipedia user!

All the best,

Doug

[Susan E]

Just this week my 4th graders and I are doing web evaluation, and I did a mini-lesson on wikipedia today.
I stress how useful it is, I talk about how some articles are locked, etc.
I say how many facts are great, but we have to be careful, and here's why....etc.

I'm with you. Wikipedia is a great starting point. But I stress how it should never be the "only source."
And the kids understand why! Their jaws all drop when they say, "you mean I can go home tonight and change a page?"
When I tell them yes, they laugh and say, "cool. I'm gonna do it. "
And I remind them that if their facts aren't straight, they should watch and see how long it takes for their addition to get changed!

[Ray Maseman]

Excellent!
As I talk to people about this issue, I suspect that the people who are most opposed to Wikipedia probably never end up on a site like this anyway. One of the other discussions that happened at the inservice I attended was that a lot of teachers aren't nearly as digital media saavy as they think they are

[Tiff E.]

This week I worked with my 11th and 12th graders and taught/'reminded' them how to evaluate web sources, and again 'reminded' them that 'not all search engines are created equal.'
I wouldn't say I bashed wikipedia, but I did discourage them from using it for formal research and as a source for a works cited page.
However, in one class a boy asked if I use wikipedia, and as I talked to this particular class I figured out my true viewpoint on the subject...which is:
Wikipedia is fine to use as a starting point [just like you said, Ray] - especially if you don't have a base knowledge of your topic and you need to gather some general information about it before starting your formal research.
However, I do discourage my students from using Wikipedia as a primary source, or citing it in their works cited page. But if they find a link at the bottom of a wikipedia page and they go to that site and find quality info...then that is great!

Also, when I talk about using wikipedia OR google to start a search, I stress fact-checking what they find there with another source.

I hope that all made sense! :)