Friday, December 11, 2009
The Wikipedia: One of the 7 Deadly Sins
All through my educational carrer, I have been told my countless teachers, conselors, and librarians to "STAY AWAY FROM WIKIPEDIA BECAUSE IT ISNT A CREDIBLE SOURCE!!" The way that teachers talk about it makes me think it to be the root of all evil. But, I don't think some people should be so quick to condemn "the wikipedia", because after all, most people use this tool to garner background information on a subject, not to do in depth research. I think that you should be able to cite wikipedia as a source, as long as you are just using to get an idea on a subject or something and you are using it for simple, or numerical facts, such as how many people died in WWII? I spend a lot of my time diggind around google for 'Credible' sources, and my time might be better spent better focusing my research instead of hunting around the web for a site that can be used in the MLA format. What do you think? What are your thoughts on wikis?
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Wikipedia is far more variable in its credibilty than encyclopedias, in my opinion. Still, the very fact that it is a wiki may add to its credibility, especially if one looks at the comments. People can critique and change posts, keeping others honest (or they can write complete lies...but then others will catch them).
ReplyDeleteI think teachers should, and many now do, allow students to use Wikipedia for background information in research projects.
Every kid has had at least one teacher who was anti-Wikipedia. Most of us assume these teachers are stubborn and refuse to recognize Wiki as a credible source. Really, by now almost everyone understands Wiki is truthful. It has been proven to be as accurate as Britannica. I think most teachers just don't want students using Wikipedia because denies us practice doing real research. In some cases, like when a student just needs to get a little background information on something, teachers almost allows allow they use of Wikipedia (or at least don't prohibit it).
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of people that were opposed to Wikipedia felt that way because it was such a new concept. With every new thing, there will be skeptics, especially with something that needs reliability to succeed. Now that more people know about Wikipedia, and it is being more widely-used, there is a better chance of people starting to edit more articles. There still remains the "fear" of Wikipedia, but I think this originates from the fear of new things.
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