In my undergrad degree we had to do a ton of research!! I think the only classes not research based were my math classes. Geology, chemistry, ethics, policy, etc., there was an element of research involved in each course. Throughout my time I repeatedly heard that Wikipedia was not a reliable source. I mean I still used it! I was going to school full-time, had a job, and was a parent. However, I used it as a jumping off point. I would go there to gain some background knowledge on my subject, then I would go research the terms, ideas, events, that I found. I would search through peer-reviewed articles and primary sources that related to what I read in the Wikipedia article. I wish I had been taught it could be a reliable source. Well, I guess I wish my professors had been taught that as well. When I was a kid I actually remember having to go to the library and look through encyclopedias (because we couldn't check out any of the volumes because there was only one set) to do any sort of research. I was also very into animals, so I remember basing my research off of articles found in my ZooBook magazines. If something was wrong, it was just wrong. There was no fixing it. So when Jeff went over the editing process and how each article was assigned a rating?? Totally blew my mind. There was a lot of good information I learned regarding how to vet the different articles. I mean, I checked out the book that my daughter is using for social studies...it was published in 2005....and it's basically a skeleton overview of topics. There is so much more good information on wikipedia, we just need to teach our students how to properly use and vet the articles.
Also, I LOVE the idea of finding an article that hasn't been well developed and having my students contribute! How amazing is that?
Phoenix, The idea to have our students become contributors to Wikipedia was a fantastic idea! It allows our students to retain the information we give them in class or that they research and apply it outside the classroom! It was interesting to think about which resource is more reliable, a wikipedia page that's been currently updated or the decade old textbooks we've had in the classroom for years. P.s. I love the gif! Who knew Michael Scott was onto something!
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love and appreciate the fact that you took this subject and probably thought to yourself, "yes I have the perfect gif for that" because yes this is amazing. But yes I agree I did so much research and who knew some of the best information was right in front of us all along. Also I agree with you and Meagan, I was so excited about the idea of having our students contribute to a Wikipedia article, can you imagine the excitement of the students to be published on the internet??
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