It’s still an Enclopedia
August 31st, 2009So it’s not a bad idea:
Starting this fall, you’ll have a new reason to trust the information you find on Wikipedia: An optional feature called “WikiTrust” will color code every word of the encyclopedia based on the reliability of its author and the length of time it has persisted on the page.
My problem isn’t Wikipedia so much as the basic inability of most students to do any more research beyond typing into Google. Serious academics have always disliked encyclopedias—they were disdained when I was growing up with pencil and paper—and peer reviewed journals and books were encouraged.
Wikipedia and websites have done nothing that wasn’t already done—just made it easier. The real trick is not disdaining wikipedia, but instead teaching students how to get to more reliable data—ERIC, EBSCOhost, and others.
The school subscribes to these databases—we need to make certain we require students to use them, and how to access them.
