leeannpal Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 What are your thoughts on using Wikipedia for school work? Have you come across any creatively edited pages? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ester Maria Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 Wikipedia is acceptable and okay as a starting point when researching something. Lots of inner connections and sometimes useful external links. Not bad. BUT, it ought not be cited in papers, since one can only cite the material of "fixed" and known authors. So, signed articles by people with some kind of credentials are okay to cite, but not Wikipedia (nor general printed enyclopaediae, for that matter). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kubiac Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 (edited) I personally believe that it may be more educational to write or edit or update a Wikipedia article than to read one, and I say that as an editor/admin since 2003! Edited February 10, 2012 by kubiac Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LarrySanger Posted February 10, 2012 Share Posted February 10, 2012 As co-founder of Wikipedia, I'll just say: make sure your child avoids all the porn. To give you an idea of the sort of people you're dealing with, a huge contingent of Wikipedians strongly opposes any movement toward even allowing people to hide pornographic images from view. I.e., they oppose a personal, opt-in filter, that you have to go into settings to turn on and which applies to your account only. The information is often correct, although often presented in an amateurish fashion. Whether it is reliable is a different and more difficult question. I wish I could recommend Citizendium.org for school purposes but frankly it doesn't have enough content yet. Check back in a few more years--things might change! For immediate practical purposes, we have a subscription to Encyclopedia Britannica on my iPad. Works beautifully for most of our purposes. Occasionally we do a web search, and occasionally that does bring us to Wikipedia, when nothing else seems convenient. I would not let my young child spend time alone on Wikipedia for any purpose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ssavings Posted February 10, 2012 Share Posted February 10, 2012 I think it depends on how it's being used. To me, the practical application for research is as a "jumping off" point - it's a fast and easy method of developing any number of ideas to research about a specific topic. I would not, probably, accept a quote from wikipedia as a direct primary source in a formal paper, just because it isn't always guarenteed to be accurate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
usetoschool Posted February 10, 2012 Share Posted February 10, 2012 I would not let my young child spend time alone on Wikipedia for any purpose. Thanks for that. I had NO idea and just read it to my son so he will know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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