I have many times heard teachers telling students that Wikipedia is not trusted content. What are the facts about Wikipedia? Perhaps you should investigate this more closely. Most experts agree that in fact Wikipedia is at least as accurate as other encyclopedia's and corrections are more likely to be accurate as compared to others.
Reliability_of_Wikipedia
In fact, some inaccurate information is likely, however the same can be said for almost any work of literature. How many times have we noticed mistakes in our textbooks?
Who has an opinion on this topic, I would love to get this discussion going.....
Alright, Chris...I'll take the bait. Right now, I tell my students to use Wikipedia as a "jumping off" point, a point to start their research to figure out a direction to head. I tell them it can not ultimately be a source though. Wikipedia is peer-reviewed regularly, but not all reviewers have the best credentials. As for the point about it being like any other encyclopedia, I would agree that it is most likely better than other encyclopedias, but at this level of writing and defending arguments, students should be using resources that go a little deeper than an encyclopedia's entry on a topic.
ReplyDeleteAlso, colleges and universities are not accepting Wikipedia as valid sources right now. If they don't, then we need to make sure our students are better prepared in finding alternative resources for their work. That way they won't get to college and look like the deer-in-the-headlights when a professor tells them no Wikipedia.
So...yes it's good...for some things (especially if you are the JCS school system trying to understand the Common Core), but not for other things.
Great!! This is exactly what we need some good conversation about the why's. I always tell students to use it as a "search engine" and scroll down and look at the resources section.
DeleteSince I personally use Wikipedia, I am not bothered if students use it. I do, however, require the students to find the original source of the information by looking at the citations at the bottom of the entry. (Kids are often shocked to see those great resources at the bottom of the page!)
ReplyDeleteThat is basically where I come down on this issue. I usually tell students that if a Wikipedia page doesn't have sited sources, you should be skeptical of the information
ReplyDelete