Earlier this week I asked for comments about Wikipedia. If anyone else wants to
share additional thoughts please send them to me directly: maryalicea@mac.com
Below are the responses I received:
Mary Alice
___
Because "anyone" can edit Wikipedia information, I
would require students to verify any information from
Wikipedia with another source.
___
In case no one else has suggested this, there was a huge discussion about Wikipedia
over the summer. Check the archives. There should be a plethora of information
for you. Personally, I fall on the side of the tried and true databases. But, I
teach elementary and they don't have the skills or the maturation or development
yet to decide what is accurate and authoritative and what is not.
___
I saw more students using Wikipedia as the year went
on. Some teachers are not aware of the source of the
content in the pedia. The English teachers will not
allow Wikipedia as a source for reports.
It drives me nuts when kids go to Wikipedia instead of
our online Grolier encyclopedias! I can remind them
of the questional content but it takes their teacher
saying so to discourage the use.
__
Don't you think the disclaimer at the bottom of their page makes it impossible to
recommend as an authoritative, reliable source? I use it to try and impress upon
students that everything they find on the WEB (and other sources sometimes) may not
have accurate information. They like it because it is usually brief and easy to
understand.
Marti Turner
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Our New Zealand School Libraries association had its conference in July and this
issue was raised through a guest speaker suggesting that we should be using
Wikipedia., he mentions this session on his blog page
http://blog.core-ed.net/derek/ . Some of the delegates were suggesting that we as a
profession let teachers know of the hazards of Wikipedia in that anyone can write
for it. This raises the issue of quality of information and the need to verify all
things found at Wikipedia with other more reliable sources.
As yet it has not taken off in our school so I am watching and listening to the
debate with interest. It seems to me that Wikipedia is a useful tool in the process
of teaching the need to check authenticity of information.
___
Mary Alice Anderson
Winona, MN
NEW PERSONAL WEB SITE:
http://homepage.mac.com/maryalicea/Sites/Anderson/Anderson.html
> Online Professional Development , School of Education: University of Wisconsin -
>Stout
> Advocacy and Emerging Issues for Media Specialists
> http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/issues/
> web site: http://www.rschooltoday.com/winonamiddle/maryaliceanderson
> maryalicea@mac.com
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