A few weeks ago in the online discussion for IDE 611, the question was raised if Wikipedia was considered a reliable and scholarly resource. The above article brings the issue of source reliability and Wikipedia to light once again. Specifically, the non-profit
Wikimedia Foundation, the creators of Wikipedia and other Internet wiki projects are committed to significantly improving the content accuracy of Wikipedia because as they readily admit with the current state of affairs and educational expectations, "Citing Wikipedia in your footnotes is an easy way to get an F on your term paper" due to "inaccurate, incomplete and often downright suspicious articles."
To address the above scholarly concerns, the Wikimedia Foundation have launched an improvement campaign entitled, "Public Policy Initiative" (PPI) in which they are calling for educators and college students to act as "critical editors" for the
Wikipedia website. Nine public policy professor from educational institutions such as Harvard University, George Washington University, Indiana University-Bloomington, and Syracuse University have agreed to participate in the PPI pilot program. The professors will employ a variety of instructional approaches and methods for integrating Wikipedia into their academic courses.
A few weeks ago in the online discussion for IDE 611, the question was raised if Wikipedia was considered a reliable and scholarly resource. The above article brings the issue of source reliability and Wikipedia to light once again. Specifically, the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, the creators of Wikipedia and other Internet wiki projects are committed to significantly improving the content accuracy of Wikipedia because as they readily admit with the current state of affairs and educational expectations, "Citing Wikipedia in your footnotes is an easy way to get an F on your term paper" due to "inaccurate, incomplete and often downright suspicious articles."
To address the above scholarly concerns, the Wikimedia Foundation have launched an improvement campaign entitled, "Public Policy Initiative" (PPI) in which they are calling for educators and college students to act as "critical editors" for the Wikipedia website. Nine public policy professor from educational institutions such as Harvard University, George Washington University, Indiana University-Bloomington, and Syracuse University have agreed to participate in the PPI pilot program. The professors will employ a variety of instructional approaches and methods for integrating Wikipedia into their academic courses.
Hi Aja,
ReplyDeleteI, personally, love wikipedia. It's a good starting point before acquiring more credible informaton. Of course, since it allows anyone to access to edit the shown content it's hard to eventually be accepted as a scholarly resource. However, many times I found that the information I get from Wikipedia can be used right away, it's credible enough and can be verified.
Hi Thinnakorn:
ReplyDeleteThank you for your great return feedback and thoughts regarding Wikipedia. I must admit that if I want to find out something fast on the internet, I usually Wikipedia it. For example, the other day my sister found out that Sara Palin's daughter who is presently starring on Dance with the Stars did not vote in the recent November elections that was just held in the United States. This made the news because her Mom is the former governor of Alaska and a possible Presidential candidate for 2012. Anyway, my sister wanted to know how old Sara Palin's daughter was, so I quickly looked it up for her on Wikipedia. Currently, I feel very comfortable looking up general,informal information on Wikipedia; however, if I was writing an academic research paper for a class at SU, I doubt that I would use it as a bibliographic resource.
I agree with you Aja, that when looking for a quick answer to something I am wondering about Wikipedia is a great resource. I would be hesistant to use it as a resource for an important academic paper though because of the multiple authors it allows. If there was a way to tighten up who is able to post on a Wiki then I would think its value would increase in the academic world.
ReplyDeleteHi Greg:
ReplyDeleteI agree. If there was some way to tighten up who is able to post on Wikipedia or if it had a staff of fact checkers who could immediately review each data entry, then I think Wikipedia would be on the path to being a better reliable academic resource.