The Times They are A-Changin'

When I was in school, high school and college, wikipedia was the biggest no-no source to cite in any research project or paper.  Each year having a little library orientation to review and learn about different research methods, search engines, and very strict iterations and reiterations:

NO WIKIPEDIA.

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As a history and religious studies major in my undergrad, sources are life.  Researching, reading, and writing papers was basically all I did for four years.  Most of the searching techniques we went over in class I was familiar with.  (Although I had never used the country codes before and will definitely be playing around with that!) However I had been conditioned to stay away from the forbidden site of wikipedia and all of the lies and inaccuracies it offered.  I knew it could be referenced for a starting off point perhaps, or a big picture idea of a certain topic but more reliable information would have to be obtained elsewhere.

Well I wish we would have analyzed Wikipedia as critical historians so I could have learned the lesson I learned today years earlier! And in hindsight, well of course Wikipedia cannot be completely inaccurate or it would have ceased to exist a long time ago.  The scale of accuracy for the articles it posts allows for one to be critical with the information they seek.

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What a perfect assignment for my students in social studies! I love the idea of assigning the creation of a Wikipedia page to my class.  It can take the place of a research paper in so many ways, they are still completing a lot of writing and still need to cite multiple sources for information, however it is a medium more suited to their own generation.  And to get them all started they can analyze the validity of other Wikipedia articles similar to our exercise in class today.

Social studies, especially since it covers civics/government, is so relevant in the discussion of fake news.  I want to be able to give my students the tools to critically think and analyze the information they come across online, in print, on the news, and from our politicians.

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