On January 15, 2001, Wikipedia was launched as a way for people all over the world to share their knowledge with others in order to increase the level of global knowledge and understanding. In order to do this Wikipedia allowed ANYONE to add their own articles on topics or to add to preexisting articles to Wikipedia. Surely this free and unmonitored form of information sharing would only be a good thing, right???
WRONG!!! While yes there were many people who only added strong, reliable information to Wikipedia, it is said to say that this was not always the case. Maliciously false and inaccurate information was posted in order to hurt others. I know of one instance when students did not like their student teacher, so they posted on Wikipedia that she had been involved in voter fraud and sentenced to serve over a hundred years in prison. Another time an honor student posted that her home town had the highest rate of welfare recipients in the state of Virginia, which led for a public outcry to improve the economic circumstances of the people in the town. This was later proven to be unfounded. Instances such as these have caused many educators to forbid citing Wikipedia in research projects.
But there is information on Wikipedia that is accurate and useful, but how can students use the information on Wikipedia that is accurate when their teachers have forbidden the use of Wikipedia? Most information that is found on Wikipedia that is accurate has citations to show from where the information came. Follow the citations and use the information found there.
WRONG!!! While yes there were many people who only added strong, reliable information to Wikipedia, it is said to say that this was not always the case. Maliciously false and inaccurate information was posted in order to hurt others. I know of one instance when students did not like their student teacher, so they posted on Wikipedia that she had been involved in voter fraud and sentenced to serve over a hundred years in prison. Another time an honor student posted that her home town had the highest rate of welfare recipients in the state of Virginia, which led for a public outcry to improve the economic circumstances of the people in the town. This was later proven to be unfounded. Instances such as these have caused many educators to forbid citing Wikipedia in research projects.
But there is information on Wikipedia that is accurate and useful, but how can students use the information on Wikipedia that is accurate when their teachers have forbidden the use of Wikipedia? Most information that is found on Wikipedia that is accurate has citations to show from where the information came. Follow the citations and use the information found there.