Re: [LM_NET] LM_NET Digest - 31 Jan 2006 - Special issue (#2006-206)

[Art Wolinsky <awolinsky@OII.ORG>]

At 08:02 PM 1/31/2006, you wrote:
>I am passionate that if
>information is being used in HS research papers and that information is NOT
>correct, then they should not use it.

Right you are, but how many mistakes are there in text books.  How many 
history books give us sanitized history?  Are they not also inaccurate.  I 
don't think it is an educators job to filter the sources of information as 
much as it is our job to teach students how to evaluate the validity of 
information they encounter.

Wikipedia certainly contains inaccuracies, but one can't discount the fact 
that is has content that is accurate and more representative of the truth 
than many other sanitized or white washed texts.

A perfect example is the fact that in the past weeks, there have been more 
than 2000 changes made to the biographies of congressmen by their 
staffers.  Many of the changes corrected inaccuracies, but many more of 
them were to "sanitize" the entries.  For example Congressman Meehan's 
staff removed ACCURATE reference to the fact that he ran on a campaign 
reform platform and pledged not to serve more than four terms and then 
broke that promise.

However, it wasn't long before users changed it back to read:

Meehan was elected to the United States House in 1992 on a plan to 
eliminate the budget deficit and instate term limits, calling for members 
of Congress to serve no more than four terms. Meehan took a pledge that he 
would abide by the limit himself but reneged with his campaign for a fifth 
term in 2000, to which he was elected. This can be compared to senator Paul 
Wellstone, who, before his death, started a campaign for a third term, 
breaking a similar pledge. In 2004, Meehan was re-elected for his seventh 
term, again by a wide margin. He is currently a member of the house armed 
services committee and the house judiciary committee.


and even better, this entry was found under the topic of Wikipedia vandalism

In January 2006, Matt Vogel, Meehan's chief of staff, admitted to 
authorizing a replacement article on Meehan published on Wikipedia, an 
online encyclopedia, with an approved and sanitized staff-written biography 
[1] [2]. This ran afoul of internal Wikipedia guidelines [3], and 
government ethics' rules on the use of employee time.

The changes endorsed by Meehan's Chief of Staff included removing mentions 
of the campaign money controversy involving Meehan, and Meehan's broken 
term-limit promise.

------------------

If students understand the nature of and the likelihood encountering 
inaccuracies in Wikipedia or ANY web content and are taught how to evaluate 
and verify the information then we are helping to make them information 
literate.

Art


******************************************************************
  Art Wolinsky
  OII Technology Director      http://oii.org
  awolinsky@oii.org             (609) 597-9481 ext 337
****************************************************************** 

I am perfectly capable of learning from my mistakes.
I will surely learn a great deal today.
******************************************************************

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