On Friday morning, I received an alert via e-mail from the AJC regarding John McCain’s vice presidential choice, Sarah Palin. My first thought was “Who in the world is Sarah Palin?” Where did I turn? Wikipedia.
Though I had only received the AJC notice no more than 5 minutes prior to looking on Wikipedia, the site for Sarah Palin had already been updated to reflect her status as McCain’s running mate. Instant news. Amazing. This, to me, is the strength of Wikipedia. It is a well-known, widely used source of information that can provide vast quantities of up-to-the minute knowledge.
I must admit that I fall into the category of teacher who has banned wikipedia for source material. After reading “About Wikipedia,” I still feel as though that is the right decision. In the article, Wikipedia admits that their articles are a good place to start research, but that the wikis should not be considered definitive. Richardson’s (2006) statistics on the editing of the article about the Indian Ocean tsunami did instill a little confidence; however, it took one year for the entry on the tsunami to become a stable source. The use of wikis in classroom as an academic resource requires that the students will take the time to discern whether or not a source is reliable. I don’t know if they would. I love my students. They are smart, great kids, but the majority of them don’t want to have to discern anything. We’re working hard on that, but for now, they believe anything that they read. This is what scares me about wikis.
After practicing editing a wiki and further reading in Richardson, I do think that a possible application of wikipedia would be integrating authentic research in an area chosen by the student. Information found through their research would be used to edit existing wikipedia entries.
I need to reflect more on how to use wikis as a classroom tool. I am still having a hard time coming to terms with the openness of the format. I am a bit of a control freak after all.
