I know I have been told by many teachers and even my own
students to never use Wikipedia for academic purposes. However, with the sheer mass of information available
online; academic research using Internet resources can be downright daunting. While citing Wikipedia directly is a bad idea,
I do believe using Wikipedia as a starting point for research makes a lot of sense.
The thoughtful use of Wikipedia can help to sort through the resources that the
internet puts at our fingertips in a much more manageable format. This video
produced by Brian Vanderveen , professor Steven Tash, and team IE from San Jose
State University helps to explain the ways that Wikipedia can be positively used
for academic research.
I agree with you in that Wikipedia is a great starting point for research. Using the resources listed on the Wikipedia page of the subject being research may provide great links.
ReplyDeleteAnother way that Wikipedia can be used is to have students check the accuracy of Wikipedia entries by using other more traditional sources of reference material. Not my idea, but I read about it in the article about Wikipedia and it makes a lot of sense to me.
ReplyDeleteI always looked at Wikipedia as "actual not factual". Basically, its a combination of resources, whether true or not, that one can refer to and get some information on a topic. However, I can scroll down to the reference list and get more information that what is actually on the page to get more facts. I agree, it is a starting point, to get familiar with a topic being research. But I definitely will encourage my students not to use the information verbatim in their project.
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