Monday, February 11, 2013
The process of wiki information online
After reading about Wikipedia and its resources, I have changed my opinions about the site. In my courses professors tell you that you cannot use Wikipedia as a reference for any research. One site I often go to for information is Wikipedia. Once I realized that they were not a reputable site for research I stopped referring to them. After completing the reading in Richardson's text I now have a better understanding of how Wikipedia works and the features and benefits that it provides. One of the best examples of how Wikipedia works was described in the text by using the tsunami in Asia several years ago. People added to that particular wiki by providing factual information, pictures, data or their personal accounts of what happened based on their experiences. This site provides collaborative opportunities for people globally to create wiki's. Wikipedia could be a good sight for students to create a wiki project. What do your students use Wikipedia for? has it ever been incorporated into a project to share or create information?
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I have always discouraged my students from using wikipedia as a source because I heard that anyone can edit it. After the readings I was shocked at how fast people correct false information and correct it using actual data. I know that most of my students use wikipedia as their first source when researching online becuase it is one of the first links that shows up. I would like to learn how to search more advanced for a topic to maybe prevent that from occuring.
ReplyDeleteWhy is it everytime you search for something Wikipedia shows up first? I would also be interested in knowing about advanced searches that do not include wikipedia as the first response. When you get some information on this pass it along. It is good to know that people do read the information posted for accuracy.
ReplyDeleteI too held off from using Wikipedia because of all the years of my professors telling me that it wasn't a reliable source. And not until taking this class did I get to view Wikipedia differently. I guess it just took getting a full explanation of what the site was created for, and how it can be beneficial academically even if it cannot be cited as a source. I am happy that I am able to get some hands on with a tool like this in class just to see firsthand how it operates.
ReplyDeletePerhaps allowing for it as a cited source, but only allowing one "wiki" source per assignment would give students the freedom to follow their noses, and also the encouragement to keep looking beyond the surface. Also, Wikipedia shows up first because of well labeled keywords in the html of the pages. Pretty much anything that pops up in the top to has made use of keywords & labels in the page design, and possibly has the ability to donate to the search engine. I used to do some web design for my old job and had to pick up a few tricks to make it look like I knew what I was doing :)
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