Rather than banning Wikipedia, why not make studying what it does and does not do part of the research and methods of our course.”
Davidson, C.N. (2007). We Can’t Ignore the Influence of Digital Technologies. Education Digest (Vol. 73 Issue 1, p15-18, 4p). Retrieved from Ebsco Host on November 25, 2008 from: http:web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=1&hid=21&sid=55338e51-a246-4eb5beb9-e90399ea9…
The internet has brought about new and exciting ways to look up information for research. In an article in Education Digest, Cathy Davidson believes that instead of Colleges and Universities banning sites such as Wikipedia, we should use the sites to not only do research, but to also broaden our knowledge base . Wikipedia is a site that lets us share our knowledge (Davidson, 2007).
When doing research I have found that Wikipedia is a great starting point. I will read Wikipedia to get a history of the subject and from that point I am able to broaden my research. There is wealth of knowledge out there. Wikipedia is just one source with which we can gain knowledge. When doing research on the internet we need to use caution with any site which we are obtaining information from. Just as in life we can not always believe everything we hear, on the internet we can not always believe everything we read. It is a matter of using our common sense and best judgment.
2 comments:
I have to agree with you "when doing research on the internet we need to use caution with any site which we are obtaining information from." All sites should be taken lightly, unless validity of the site is known.
I have found Wikipedia to be helpful, but I do check out the information, just as I would with any other site.
I also agree that Wikipedia is a great starting point to get familiar with any subject before getting into the depth of research papers.
I understand, of course, the concern is how reliable is Wiki’s information. In fact, there was an interesting discussion on BBC web site that addressed this topic. It talked about the article in Nature which compared the accuracy of entries between Wikipedia and Encyclopaedia Britannica (news.bbc.com). At the same time, even prestigious top-tier journals have some papers retracted so that mistakes can happened everywhere. Another thing, however, that one should never rely on info taken from a single source.
Michael Feinstein
References:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4840340.stm
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