Wikiality: The New Reality?
I had very little personal experience with Wikipedia. I looked at it once with my children who were in college at the time. They enjoyed a chuckle as they demonstrated how to change the information. Right away the red flags of an educator flew up and I have steered clear of it ever since. But I read some interesting articles in preparing for this discussion and I have lowered the flags…slightly.
Stephen Cobert is a genius satirist. I enjoy his somewhat twisted humor and spot-on criticism of the absurdities of our culture. He really perpetrated the fear that most educators have with Wikipedia: Anyone can change the information and if enough people agree with it, it in turns becomes accepted. This is true, to a certain point. Wikipedia is very open about this fact. In an article by Jeff Young in the Chronicles Of Education entitled, “Wikipedia Founder Discourages Academic Use of His Own Creation” (2006), Wikipedia’s founder Jimmy Wales, agrees that students should not use the free encyclopedia as a cited source for school projects and serious research. He also includes a disclaimer of sort on the Wikipedia site itself that offers users that one should “consider these views with discretion.” The website also offered two simple rules: Use any encyclopedia as a starting point for research, and use your judgment, all sources need to be evaluated. (2010) This was a welcome addition to the respectability of the website, it was buried on the side bar of the site amongst at least a dozen other topics. I’m not sure too many students look there before they begin search out information on Wikipedia. I feel the responsibility lies in teachers providing demonstration on what situations would be appropriate, for example looking for odd bits of trivia that may or may not be totally accurate.
I am glad I had to research some of the misconceptions that I had about Wikipedia. I thought that once you found enough people to agree with your submissions it was considered fact and was allowed to go unchecked and unsupervised. Wikipedia does not want false information on its site and provides cautionary notes of its reach of validity. However, like plagiarism, it is up to educators to stress where this free encyclopedia is valuable and teach responsible and in depth research skills to one’s students.
$200 Textbooks for Free, You Do the Math
My reaction to the article discussing the emergance of online textbooks holds a cautionary note as well. As the article expounded on the wonderful world online textbooks would create, I began to remember the discussion our school superintendent had concerning the purchase of online texts and materials in hopes of cutting costs and providing current and updated materials to students. I could not fault the desire of our school to remain current and solvent, however the implementation of this program created a slippery slope that concerned me. If these were basically e-books, needing to be read on electronic devices, i.e. laptops, iTouch, or iPads, wouldn’t it off set the money saved by not buying textbooks? If laptops are available for each student, then is he/she allowed to take them home? Who is responsible if something happens to the electronic device if it is taken off the school grounds? The questions go on and on for me. I am not against using online resources if they cost effective and reliable, but at this stage of development, I think most public educational institutions will be hard pressed to fund such an endeavor.
Bibliography
Young, Jeff. (2006, June 12). Wikipedia Founder Discourages Academic Use of His Creation. Retrieved September 1, 2010 from The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Wikipedia: Academic Use. Retrieved Sept. 1, 2010, from Wikipedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Academic_use/
I enjoy your perspective, Anne, and I don't think our views are all that far apart. My 'flags' are probably lower than yours, but it really does not change the fact that Wikipedia isn't suitable to serve as a source - especially when, as you well pointed out, they advise you themselves not to do so. They really can't be much clearer but at the same time, they also couldn't be more accessible and therein lies the challenge for us as educators. Just like online textbooks, online encyclopedias - even those based on wikis, are too accessible, too comfortable, I suppose. It has me thinking again about the ease with which we all plagiarized (as instructed) on our last projects. Helping a student to fully understand is the only way to bring them away from an easy-to-access and easy-to-use resource.
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