In this chapter, Parker analyzes the usefulness of Wikipedia in schools. Personally, I use wikipedia quite a bit - mostly when I am looking for quick info on a topic. I guess I can be classified as a "Wikipedian" (really, that is what they call faithful Wikipedia users). I haven't used it for research purposes (i.e. college papers) but find the information on Wikipedia a great jumping point to the other resources I am about to delve into. One of the resources that Parker provides is a link to "
Ten Things You May Not Know About Wikipedia"; I strongly recommend checking it out, the information is valuable. She also talks about the "discussion" and "history" tabs that are found on each page (I had never really noticed that they existed!). You can go to these tabs and find the history of a page (and even view previous versions of the page), or go to the discussion page and read the discussion around certain posts on the page in question. I found this to be very interesting, viewing why something was added or deleted. It also indicates to me that there is serious thought as to the content on these pages.
Parker provides some great activities to get teachers prepared for/accustomed to using Wikipedia. She also discusses pedagogical implications and classroom practices. The main point in all of these activities being that one needs to be able to analyze the information presented and decide if it can be used as a valuable (read - quotable) resource. Having a discussion with your class regarding Wikipedia and coming up with a checklist to evaluate the wikipedia entry are all great ways to engage your students in a dialogue regarding the reliability of sources. Something very important for our students to learn, regardless of the site.
Will Richardson in his book, "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for the Classrooms" also talks in-depth about the use of Wikipedia in education. I would also consider him a Wikipedian. I too had never noticed the history and discussion tabs found on every Wikipedia entry, (way to be observant Nick). I agree that these show proof that the majority of the contributors are working diligently to maintain the integrity of the Wikipedia entries.
ReplyDeleteI also like your point that we need to teach students the "skills" of being able to analyze information they are presented with and determine its validity. Once students have mastered these skills then they can apply them to any web resource, be it wikis, blogs, forums and news feeds.