Apr 29 2008
Dilemma of the Week: Wikipedia
Wikipedia is one of several resources that students should be encouraged to use in the classroom. Using one resource or reference book as the only source is inappropriate for an assignment. When two or three sources are required to complete an assignment, the student might discover that the resources provide conflicting reports. The student needs to evaluate the information to decide which source is correct.
Before an assignment is underway, teachers need to advise students about vandalism in open source documents. They should review how to spot a valid source in Wikipedia as well as other websites. Andy Carvins’, article Turning Wikipedia into an Asset for Schools, writes “some entries will have a scrupulous list of sources cited and a detailed talk page on which Wikipedians debate the accuracy of information presented in order to improve it. Others, though, will have no sources cited and no active talk pages. To me, this presents teachers with an excellent authentic learning activity in which students can demonstrate their skills as scholars.”
Educators should work toward making a free encyclopedia a worthwhile project. What does the average school spend each year on databases for their Library Media Center? Are the historical events published in these databases unbiased? Are the original sources used in the earlier volumes of encyclopedias stacked on library shelves any more reliable than the living sources who contribute to the open source communities? Perhaps we have accepted what is written in our earlier volumes of encyclopedias as gospel when in fact the reliability of these resources should be questioned as well. Wikipedia is new and still evolving; we need to give it a chance.
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I agree authentic does not necessarily mean that it is 100% correct. This gives students the ability to think critically and work on a real life problem.