Wikipedia

[melmo]

I have several students who turned in an assignment that had to have cited websites and they used Wikipedia. I don't think they understand that wikipedia does not always have the correct information, based on the fact that anyone can submit info. This was a fairly informal assignment and the answers that they found happened to be correct. I want to use this opportunity to show them why they cannot use it as a reference on any other paper or any other class.

Have you come across anything on Wikipedia that you know to be false that I can use as an example to my class?

My class is full of non-traditional students at a local community college. They are all adults ranging from 18-60.

Thanks!

[snowzilla]

I don't have an example, but I do have an article (http://http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/1328/wikipedia-founder-discourages-academic-use-of-his-creation)where the creator of Wikipedia himself says that you're not supposed to use Wikipedia for course work, and he has no sympathy for students who get busted on it.

[apoppy]

Here is a list of articles currently under dispute for various reasons: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Accuracy_dispute

[melmo]

Thanks for the quick responses!! I tried to search, but I wasn't putting in the right phrase- accuracy dispute.
Thanks so much!

[jnettie]

Ah, yes.

DH has banned all internet sources from his students. The internet, in general, is not good for research. What can be said for Wiki, can be said for many websites. Anyone can have a website about anything they want.

apoppy, that's really great! Thanks for posting.

[Adaya]

This is a good topic. I will be discussing my research paper guidelines with my students next week. I have very specific guidelines for them when it comes to internet research including not being able to use Wiki.

[mmeblue]

I tell my students that Wikipedia can be a good place to start, but it can't be the place to end. The articles there can give some good general info to someone who doesn't know much about a topic, and they can also assist the student in determining what would be a good way to continue the research (i.e. specific terms/phrases they can look for in other resources). But, just as I wasn't allowed to use encyclopedias as sources when I was in school, they need to find more reliable sources to cite in their research.

[AHammer]

You could always show your students how you yourself can change something on wikipedia.

Whenever I assign any work that requires research, I specifically say "Wikipedia is not allowed"

[IrishEyes]

Recently, an article described a new program, called Wikiscanner, that allows you to see who makes edits to Wikipedia entries (by IP address). (You can see the institution, but not the individual, that made changes.) This program revealed how much institutions edit their own entries (Exxon, CIA, FBI, to name a few). Obviously, one should not rely on Wikipedia when there's a chance of bias in what is provided.

I know I once read an entry where someone had added profanity. It was removed shortly after when I revisited that entry.

[SweetRed]

I took a class for grad school that dealt with designing educational content for the WWW. Part of the discussion was how any credible source should be building into their web site an "about the authors" page so that users know what makes this site believable. Not only do we need to worry about accuracy, but we also need to worry about bias.

For as easy as it might be to say, "Don't use the Internet for research," it's better to develop critical thinkers who know the American Medical Association is a credible source while Wikipedia is not.

[msnicolea]

ITA, SweetRed--there is a TON of valuable, accurate info on the internet. I use scientific journal articles all the time, for example, as well as information from reputable news sources. In fact, i don;t think i could do my job nearly as effectively or efficiently without internet sources of data and information! You just have to know where to look/how to sift through the BS!

[Southlooper]

ITA, SweetRed--there is a TON of valuable, accurate info on the internet. I use scientific journal articles all the time, for example, as well as information from reputable news sources. In fact, i don;t think i could do my job nearly as effectively or efficiently without internet sources of data and information! You just have to know where to look/how to sift through the BS!

This would be a great oppurtunity to teach about evaluating sources.

I have an example. I have a friend who is on Wikipedia. The information on his DOB, POB, age, and where he grew up and where he went to school were all wrong. I corrected it.

[tenofcups]

But, just as I wasn't allowed to use encyclopedias as sources when I was in school, they need to find more reliable sources to cite in their research.

Is a regular encyclopedia not considered a reliable source? I don't remember any prohibitions against regular encyclopedias for research when I was in school. Seems to me that would be a good starting point for background information.

I make my living as a writer and I do use Wikipedia as a tool for background info., but only one of many when I research. I've also been doing this a long time now so I think I have a pretty good sense of which sites I can trust for solid information, but I could see it could be hard to make those differentiations if you're just starting to do real research.

[IrishEyes]

Is a regular encyclopedia not considered a reliable source? I don't remember any prohibitions against regular encyclopedias for research when I was in school. Seems to me that would be a good starting point for background information.

A good starting point, yes, but actually from high school on, I was not allowed to cite encyclopedias for research. They wanted us to seek out and use the primary information sources.

[mmeblue]

Is a regular encyclopedia not considered a reliable source? I don't remember any prohibitions against regular encyclopedias for research when I was in school. Seems to me that would be a good starting point for background information.
What IrishEyes said. I remember teachers telling me that the info we found in encyclopedias was considered "common knowledge," and that we should always use more in-depth sources to cite. I think we could use the encyclopedias as sources in elementary school, but not beyond that.

[laura]

This is one of my big pet peeves - actually, moreso in conversations where people are trying to "prove" something and their reasoning is that they read it on wikipedia. :p

As others have said, we restrict wikipedia as a cite-able source for students (traditional college-level) on coursework. If they want to use it as a jumping off point to get an idea on something, they can, but they cannot take information from there directly, they must cross-reference.

[ysolde]

I know that the date of FIL's Ph.D. was wayy off for the longest time. I just checked, and they removed the date at which he received his Ph.D. altogether. There is some discussion about it in the discussion page.

[melmo]

The assignment was dealing with researching websites that they may need to reference in their (future) jobs. I work in Health Information and consistently go to Medicare and Medicaid websites to make sure that we are doing something right. They are not easy websites to navigate. I gave them a list of websites that might be helpful, but I made the mistake of not restricting them to those websites. I did require they cite each website that they found their answer at the end of each question.

I am not sure if the students that used wikipedia know what it is. I am basing that on their lack of computer knowledge in other areas. This has been a learning experience for me, too.

[dionysia]

Even though Wikipedia is biased and sometimes completely inaccurate, a lot of the times there are citations within Wiki entries that link or reference actual sources. Kind of like your own bibilographical clearinghouse. ;)

Di

[maniach]

You could mention the time that Stephen Colbert told his viewers to go edit the article on (I think) elephants and tons of people logged on and changed all kinds of stuff about elephants... that they were bipeds, marsupials, etc.

It was actually kind of funny and Wikipedia made some changes after that.

[mimieliza]

There are a lot of valid information sources online. Plenty of peer-reviewed periodicals are available online; pdf copies of congressional and legislative documents; website content from respected industry/field leaders, etc. I think the wikipedia question is a good way to introduce the way to sort out good vs. bad online content for references.

Evaluating online content for research is a huge topic of discussion, but I think it is a pretty savvy research skill. I think at this point in time it is rapidly becoming one of the most important research skills students need to learn. I learned how to use the internet accurately for research in graduate school; now students need to learn how to use it in college or preferably high school.

[artist]

See Who's Editing Wikipedia - Diebold, the CIA, a Campaign (http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2007/08/wiki_tracker)
Wired Magazine

[roadrunner]

DH has banned all internet sources from his students. The internet, in general, is not good for research.

As a high school teacher, I'd be wary of doing this. I'm currently doing my Master's Degree online, and haven't actually touched a book. All my research has been done online. There are certainly many credible online sources out there, and the accessibility to them is wonderful.

I prefer to try and instill good research methods and skills in my students. I think that baning the internet for research would be doing my students a great disservice.

[paiger]

I definitely think students should be taught how to use the internet for research. I work at a research institution and use the internet all the time for information. Science Direct and The Web of Science are a great way to access countless journal articles, and most colleges I know have total access to them. The libraries of the schools are usually hooked up to them, so you can then request the article via interlibrary mail if they don't have it.

I would think in this day and age, if a student leaves high school without being able to really get around the internet with credible sources and journal articles, they will be behind when they get to college. I see it the same as being able to get around a library.

[t3h_wookiee]

The thing with Wikipedia is that it is an awesome source for finding true sources for your research! It was more helpful than words can express for my capstone paper in college in finding primary sources about a little-known Japanese economist from the 1800s. I don't think I would have ever finished that paper if it wasn't for Wikipedia.

Definitely never use it for your source itself though. Like Di said, use it as a bibliography. That's where the beauty of Wikipedia lies.

[Amuse Bouche]

As a lawyer, I do about 80% of research on the internet. A lot of that is through respected legal publishers (like Lexus and Thomsen West) who have created online portals, but there are several other sources (like findlaw) which I refer to often.