I apologize if I am rehashing something that has been previously posted.
I didn't catch this thread from the beginning.
Personally, I LIKE Wikipedia and I use it all the time. It is a great
tool for finding lots of useful information (What is Julie from the Real
World New Orleans doing now? ... Let's see you find that in a Reference
book in a typical middle school library ...).
I do, however, teach my students that it probably isn't a source that
should be cited in an academic paper. I've found that one of the best
resources for helping students to get this idea is from the "Citing
Wikipedia" page on Wikipedia itself:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citing_Wikipedia
A partial quote from the page:
"A caution before citing Wikipedia.
As with any source, especially one of unknown authorship, you should be
wary and independently verify the accuracy of Wikipedia information if
possible. For many purposes, but particularly in academia, Wikipedia may
not be an acceptable source;[1] indeed, some professors and teachers may
reject Wikipedia-sourced material completely. This is especially true
when it is used uncorroborated.
We advise special caution when using Wikipedia as a source for research
projects. Normal academic usage of Wikipedia and other encyclopedias is
for getting the general facts of a problem and to gather keywords,
references and bibliographical pointers, but not as a source in itself.
Remember that Wikipedia is a wiki, which means that anyone in the world
can edit an article, deleting accurate information or adding false
information, which the reader may not recognize."
The rest of the page is very much worth reading if you plan to teach
citation to middle schoolers or their teachers.
We try to help students (and teachers) understand that information
gathered for an "academic" paper needs to be held to an "academic
standard." That standard might change depending on your course, your
topic, your teacher, your age, etc. We have our seventh graders cite
World Book and other general encyclopedias in their papers, but general
encyclopedias (and other tertiary sources) are typically not considered
acceptable academic sources for our Frosh and above.
dave
Dave Wee, Librarian
Harvard-Westlake Middle School
700 North Faring Road
Los Angeles, California 90077
Phone -- (310) 288-3270
E-mail -- dwee @ hw dot com
"You see, I don't believe that libraries should be drab places where
people sit in silence, and that's been the main reason for our policy of
employing wild animals as librarians."
~~ Monty Python ~~
-----Original Message-----
From: School Library Media & Network Communications
[mailto:LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of Julie Duvall
Sent: Monday, February 02, 2009 6:49 AM
To: LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: Re: [LM_NET] Why NOT Wikipedia
I agree with the other comments about Wikipedia not being reliable. I
really like the clothes analogy...I might have to use that in the
future.
To add another perspective of why not to use wikipedia...the info might
not be age appropriate. For example, I teach in a middle school.
Earlier this year the computer teacher was doing a lesson where the
students have to gather simple facts on Jackie Robinson, and she used
wikipedia. Included in the article was a quote by his manager referring
to him as a "f***ing zebra." (It's under the 1947 - Breaking the Color
Barrier heading.) Not exactly what you want 6th graders to be reading.
We have filters on our computers, but that still got through. Just
another point you might want to through out when discouraging use of
wikipedia as a legit research tool.
*~*~*~*~ Have a wonderful day! ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Julie Duvall, MLIS
Highland Middle School
402 Shenango Road
Beaver Falls, PA 15010
duvallj@bsd.k12.pa.us<mailto:duvallj@bsd.k12.pa.us>
"Information is the currency of democracy. " ~ Thomas Jefferson
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