Wikipedia: A Whole New World

 

    The content we discussed on Wikipedia actually opened a whole new world for myself and my future students. Most of us grew up on the notion that Wikipedia was "untrustworthy because any one can edit the content." Wikipedia was a curse word in the classroom. Don't talk about it, don't use it, and the teacher better not catch you on the site. Technology is constantly adapting and changing, and Wikipedia is among that change. I think that teachers prevent students from using it because they haven't been trained on the proper way to utilize the tools within Wikipedia, such as the rating scale.

    I was never allowed to use Wikipedia until I got to my junior year of college, where my professors actually suggested starting there for research, but only to find other sources, not information. It was always "scroll to the bottom and see what sources are cited." Never, "read through the article and tell me what you found." I never realized that there is a way to see how reliable a Wikipedia document is. By going beyond the main page, and into the "Talk" tab, one can actually discover a rating scale and find how the article is rated. Those with a better rating, mean that they are a solid article. Those with a lower rating, mean that they need a little more work before they can become solid. 

    I have discovered a whole new world of information and it begins at Wikipedia. My future students will be trained on how to use it, and we will break the mold of it being a "horrible" site. I can only imagine the parents "suggestions" when they realize their child is using Wikipedia for a research project. We need to start letting Wikipedia into the classroom, and stop slamming the door in it's face!