Can’t tell you how many times I’ve shaken my head and muttered when my kids come home from school to work on a project saying:
And we can’t use Wikipedia!
Pretty much happens each school year and uttered by most of their teachers.
Unfortunately most educators still fail to:
- Appreciate the benefits of Wikipedia as a reference source.
- Don’t understand how it can be used for writing projects.
As digitally connected educators, it’s important for us to keep addressing the misconceptions associated with Wikipedia.
And here’s how you can help!
Dierdre Shetler has written a great post on using Wikipedia’s Simple English feature with students for the Teacher Challenge ‘best of the web’s free tools for educators“.
She’s asked educators to extend the Wikipedia conversation by asking us to reflect on:
- Why is Wikipedia sometimes considered an “invalid source?”
- How is it that studies show that Wikipedia is just as reliable as a print encyclopedia?
- When is it appropriate to use Wikipedia? When is it not?
- How can we have this discussion with students?
Please share your thoughts by leaving your comments on this post or Deirdre’s guest post.
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