Comments on: Teaching administrators about Wikipedia

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

I conducted a wiki workshop today that brought to light a number of teacher misconceptions about Wikipedia. I discussed all of the points you mentioned today and focused on the fact that the volunteer community really works to vet out inaccuracies. By the end of the workshop, I think the message was resonating and they are now seeing Wikipedia in a new light as well as seeing the true value of wikis for collaboration in and out of the classroom.

By: Joel

Joel — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

On a somewhat more philosophical level, I am a little disturbed at any decision in education to block access to that which we do not like or agree with. The irony that it would happen in a library is a little to thick for me.

It is possibly one last-ditch effort to try to maintain a level of control over “the message”. Unfortunately schools have held too dearly to the concept of controlling the message, delivering the message, being the giver of the message – it is a game which cannot be won.

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

I agree with what you’re saying, but have to question the way your started your post. Both your statements “On any given day, approximately 1 in 10 Internet users visits Wikipedia” and more specifically “If it was terrible, it wouldn’t maintain its audience” could be said of pornography.

By: Russ

Russ — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

Interesting article. The “Wikipedia Debate” has always held my interest as an educator. To add my two cents:

The 2 in web 2.0 stands for the “more than one” aspect of the new web. We are not to be observers; we are to *be* the new web. The librarian cutting off access to Wikipedia is indefensible not merely because it’s a source of knowledge, but because Wikipedia is the ultimate educational tool. What better way to have students “prove it” than to set up/maintain a Wikipedia page? One of my highest (unwritten) goals as an educator is to get every one of my students to become expert enough on a subject and competent enough as a communicator to adopt a Wikipedia page. What other performance assessment hits so many Big Picture Goals? Step 1. Find something you’re passionate about (learning becomes meaningful); Step 2. Become an expert on that passion (research, build new learning); Step 3. Protect your passion (lifelong learner).

By: Michelle Baldwin

Michelle Baldwin — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

I have a session, “What You Don’t Know About Wikipedia,” where I outline many of the same points you made above. After that, I discuss with the group the skill of discernment of information, and we move on to data triangulation with Wikipedia as our starting point.

After we finish, I ask them to imagine doing the same activities with students– and how much the students would be learning about information literacy, beyond the mere topic they’re researching.

A classroom creating its own Wikipedia entry is an amazing way to reinforce these concepts!

By: James Levy

James Levy — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

A lot of the things that Teachers will eventually use Wikipedia for have little to do with accessing articles via keywords searches.

For instance, I’m a co-founder of a startup working on a computer-assisted method of generating quiz material directly from Wikipedia.

We can also use blogs or news websites, but the succinct prose of Wikipedia works particularly well.

If you’d like, you can try a demo that we’ve been using for our own hiring process:

http://plopquiz.com/preview/ad_embed

To try taking a plopquiz, click on the ad in the right sidebar, and then click the Apply Now button.

By: Jon Becker

Jon Becker — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

I think it was Will Richardson who began a presentation by making a factually incorrect edit to a Wikipedia page. At the end of the 1/2 hour (or so) presentation, he went back to the page to show the audience that it had been changed back by another “editor” (or, perhaps, edited multiple times as indicated by the history page). I think this approach demonstrates the power of Wikipedia, but also gives it some legitimacy/credibility to skeptics.

By: Derry Lyons

Derry Lyons — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

From the wisdom of Seth Godin:

It’s easy to be against something
…that you’re afraid of.
And it’s easy to be afraid of something that you don’t understand.

(http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/09/its-easy-to-be.html)

By: KarenR

KarenR — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

I tend to focus on the discussions that go on about the articles. I draw on my background as an English teacher who ran writing workshops…I always wanted my students to engage in the level of discussion about their writing from word choice to bias to using sources.

By: Jonathan Wade

Jonathan Wade — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

While I agree that one draw of Wikipedia is its “self-healing” and the fact that it’s never outdated, this is only true if it acknowledges the way that perceptions have changed regarding a particular body of knowledge. Errors are a critical part of learning and I would hate to see Wikipedia “fix” all mistakes without some transparency. Overall, I think Wikipedia does a good job tracing the history of ideas, but this is definitely one aspect of the education process that we cannot afford to overlook.