Thursday, December 08, 2005
Thoughts on Wikipedia
"Wikipedia is a multi-lingual Web-based free-content encyclopedia. It is written collaboratively by volunteers, allowing articles to be changed by anyone with an internet connection and added by anyone with a Wikipedia member account. The project began on January 15, 2001 as a complement to the expert-written Nupedia, and is now operated by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Wikipedia has more than 2,000,000 articles, including 850,000 in the English-language version.
Wikipedia has steadily risen in popularity, and has spawned several sister projects, such as Wiktionary, Wikibooks, and Wikinews. Articles in the Wikipedia are regularly cited by the mass media and academia, who generally praise it for its free distribution, editing, and diverse range of coverage.
Editors are encouraged to uphold a policy of "neutral point of view" under which notable perspectives are summarized without an attempt to determine an objective truth. But Wikipedia's status as a reference work has been controversial. Its open nature allows vandalism, inaccuracy, and opinion. It has also been criticised for systemic bias, preference of consensus to credentials, and a perceived lack of accountability and authority when compared with traditional encyclopedias." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia
And here are some thoughtful words on what this all means for our students...
"What differentiates Wikipedia from the traditional encyclopedia it is that its articles are not written by hired "experts" (Britannica uses over 4,000 of them), but by anyone who chooses to write or contribute. No article on the topic you are searching for? Create your own! All Wikipedia articles begin, in fact, with a single contribution by a single person, who thinks he or she has some knowledge of some topic (which they pick and name) and who is motivated to contribute. Some topics never go beyond this one contribution.
"What should we teach our kids about Wikipedia? First, that it’s a source. Second, that it’s never the only source. And third, that merely searching, finding and citing the Wikipedia—or even the Britannica—does not constitute "research," even by an elementary school kid. Students need to be taught early to cross check information, to consult multiple sources, and to go to, read and cite original documents and sources, where they exist. Especially in this time and political climate, students must be taught not to necessarily believe what they hear or read—even from so called ‘experts,"—but to always look for additional, corroborating sources. (By the way, that’s the "re" in research.)"Prensky, Marc. Search vs. Research. http://webmail.sctboces.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky-Search_vs_Research-01.pdf (PS - take a look at Marc's example of the report our students should be writing on p.6)
