Research Through a New Perspective

This afternoon was full of surprises! Most shocking of all, who knew Wikipedia could actually be helpful? And secondly, who knew a person could Google something from the perspective of another country? Yeah, I am shocked as well! 

Wikipedia can be informational and reliable! I learned about the rating system Wikipedia uses, known as the quality scale. One key to remember with Wikipedia’s quality scale is that an article can improve over time. Even though just about anyone in the world can make an edit to a Wikipedia page, managers can go in and revise edits. Users gain status and prestige as they correctly edit articles and pages that allow them to become managers of the article and page. A fun fact is that the best way to utilize Wikipedia is that once a useful piece of information is found within the article, go down to the resource section of the page and if there is a website linked to the fact, go to that website and double check the facts. The hyperlinked website can be a great resource to use to back up the idea with a credible resource besides Wikipedia. 

The second shocking fact of the day is surrounding Google. “Google it” has become an official verb as of June 2006 according to an article on wired.com. However, Google is not only useful for typing in specific questions. The lenses through which you google items has now also been redefined. For most of my life, alright up until this past Tuesday, the only solid way I knew to find information was by typing in my question or topic without any special add ons. However, my brain was utterly surprised on Monday when I learned that I can Google a topic from another country’s perspective. For example, when wanting to know about the Cold War from the perspective of the United States, I can type in “Cold War :gov.us.” Yet if I wanted to know about the Cold War from the perspective of Russia, I would type in “cold war :gov.ru.” Therefore, it is essential for students to be learning the country codes of different countries in order to enhance and further their research skills. 

Wikipedia and Google have so much to offer our students when we take the time to learn and properly teach how to utilize these websites the smartest way possible. These two websites have significantly altered how I research, and I am very interested and excited to use these in my classroom.