In my early years of education I remember Wikipedia first coming onto the scene. Teachers were weary of this new encyclopedia because anyone anywhere could edit the content and write seemingly whatever they wanted about whatever topic they chose. This has changed drastically. Not only is Wikipedia good for initial research and finding references, but the platform itself is also pretty dang accurate. Furthermore, Wikipedia grades everyone one of its' pages on a scale for reliability and edit ability. No longer can you find fake Wikipedia pages with inaccurate information because people everywhere are working to verify the accuracy of the information and when more information is needed, Wikipedia will even let you know!
It is time to start using Wikipedia and teaching our kids how to judge the accuracy of a page. If the page needs more information, what better way to enhance your students writing, creativity and research ability than to update the page itself for more accurate and better information? I think Wikipedia is one of the greatest tools available for research because you can find information on nearly any topic and verify its accuracy more than a textbook or other online tool. Wikipedia is updated faster than textbooks, and can provide incredible amounts of information with nearly no wasted time. Stop stopping Wikipedia!
I love the move towards using more of Wikipedia! It is crazy to know how outdated textbooks and encyclopedias are, yet they are still used everyday in classrooms. Our students deserve the best and most up-to-date information, so providing them good information with a reliable source that is being constantly edited and kept up to date, like Wikipedia is, is what our students deserve! Yes! We need to stop stopping Wikipedia!!
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