The question is should we use or should we not use Wikipedia? Using Wikipedia as a source for students to do research is very questionable to me. It is seems to be unreliable as a source on its own merit, but can be a helpful tool used with a creditable reference. I believe that allowing our students to use Wikipedia as an essential source in their research would be very harmful.
For myself, I have never been a regular user of Wikipedia, but for no significant reason. I would always hear my coworker swears by it and would often use it when she wanted to answer a question. Just recently did I want to find some information for entertainment purposes and thought to use Wikipedia. The entries did not answer my question. This was a surprise to me because the detail I was looking for was a very highly publicized event that received a lot a new coverage. I just assumed it to be a creditable source for looking up information. Katie Hefner wrote in her New York Times articles, “At its core, Wikipedia is not just a reference work but also an online community that has built itself a bureaucracy of sorts — one that, in response to well-publicized problems with some entries.” This in return allows the site to leaves itself open to misinformation and vandalism. This fuel the fire for me to not use Wikipedia as a one and only source for any information I need to research.
After watching the Colbert video “Wikiality” I decided to inquire to friends, family, and coworker on what they knew about Wikipedia and if they used it often. Time and time again the response was that Wikipedia is not a reliable source for gathering information and they only use it to settle a small debate amongst friends. Wikipedia has been known to have many reports of false information. For example, John Seigenthaler Sr. was an assistant to Attorney General Robert Kennedy. In a Wikipedia article he was accused of being directly involved in the assassinations of John F Kennedy and his brother Bobby. In the USA Today article A False Wikipedia “biography’ Seigenthaler stated “This is a highly personal story about Internet character assassination. It could be your story. And, I am interested in letting many people know that Wikipedia is a flawed and irresponsible research tool.”
The minds that I have been entrusted to teach on a daily basis are inquisitive and ready to learn all they can. I try to be very careful how I present information to them, but for some reason they tend to view information they obtain from the internet to be all truth and do not question validity of the source. It is my job to facilitate their learning and probe them to ask questions and seek other sources to obtain a correct and credible answer to their research. Wikipedia as a source for them to gain knowledge on a particular topic that is wrongly stated can be a big problem as I see it. I would not want them to be misinformed.
Works Cited:
Seigenthaler, J. (2005, November 29). A False Wikipedia “Biography.” USA Today. Retrieved January 19, 2010, from http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2005-11-29-wikipedia-edit_x.htm
Hafner, Katie (2006, June 17). Growing Wikipedia Refines Its 'Anyone Can Edit' Policy The New York Times Retrieved January 19,2010 from
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/17/technology/17wiki.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
