Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Wikipedia Accuracy
At the rate we're going, I don't think we'll get to wikis until next school year. But I think many of you are probably aware of the recent controversy over Wikipedia and the accuracy of its entries. Nature Magazine just did a "blind comparison" of science articles at Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica. Wikipedia averaged 4 mistakes per article, but Encyclopedia Britannica averaged 3. Not bad considering how new Wikipedia is - and that it can evolve and change much faster than Britannica can.
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Maybe we should perform an experiment. Everyone could choose an article in Wikipedia, add some outrageous "fact," and then check back frequently to see how long before it is corrected. We could do the same thing with less outrageous examples of misinformation, and see what happens.
ReplyDeleteI just used Wikipedia with my freshmen; I had no idea that it contained quite a few mistakes. Interesting... the kids seemed to enjoy the information and it provided them what seemed strong background information.
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ReplyDeleteWhat I like about Wikipedia is that it illustrates how knowledge is constructed. I still think of the Encyclopedia Britannica as a book of absolute, unquestionable facts that were mysteriously handed down to a chosen person (kind of like the Bible, I guess). Once we start emphasizing the idea that all knowledge is essentially human, perhaps our students will be more willing to take the risk of creating their own "texts."
ReplyDeleteI think that it is good for students to see articles that may or may not be error filled. This gets them to analyize there research and not just take for granted that what they are reading is the "truth". I would hope that if something does not make sense they would look further into the topic. Is that not one of the things that we are trying to get them to do?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Brian and Kristin that it is a good resource to use to teach our kids critical thnking skills and not to accept everything they read or hear on blind faith.
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