by Maya

I think that online educational resources should be available to students to use.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, has been the subject of a lot of controversy in the last few years. Some educators are reluctant to allow students to use Wikipedia as a resource.

One of the reasons teachers are so unwilling is because of a few well-publicized scandals involving people who submit articles under containing false information. Other times people have given false credentials while writing articles. I think that Wikipedia is a wonderful way to get good information.

Despite the attitudes many are taking to the new site, Wikipedia gives good information, for the most part. Just because of a few loud scandals, Wikipedia has been written off as “faulty” and “completely untrustworthy.” I have used Wikipedia in almost every paper I have written, sometimes to a huge degree, with outstanding results. In order to use Wikipedia, you have to be careful and check a few facts with certified websites to make sure some stuff is parallel, but otherwise Wikipedia is a great site to use for information. People who use Wikipedia without checking any facts at all deserve what they get if there is faulty information in their paper.

Wikipedia requires a little more work to work effectively (checking info) but it has more than 2,000,000 articles in its database. The number of experts who have contributed significant, factual articles is astounding, and it makes it one of the best used online research sites. Some people think that Wikipedia is not fit to be used because it doesn’t do a very thorough check to see if people are really who they say they are, or more importantly, if they have the information they say they have. The result is that every so often one may come across an article that isn’t true, but that has never happened to me, and I admit to being a little surprised. But I am not complaining. Some people are, though, and finally the founder of Wikipedia, Jeremy Wales, has finally announced that they are upping the standards an article must pass in order to submit an article.

The reason that people are so reluctant to allow the citation of Wikipedia in elementary, middle, and high schools, is that it is so easy to submit falsehoods about your age, education, credentials, expertise, etc. Teachers don’t want to have to double check to see if the students Wikipedia information is correct, and so are trying to have it banned. If the teachers don’t check the information, then the students have an opportunity to virtually make their entire paper up. If they do check everything, then it could take them days or even weeks to grade every paper. That is where a site called TurnItIn.com is covering the bases. The way TurnItIn.com works: students write their paper and cite all their sources. They email the paper to TurnItIn.com and the site scans the web and comes up with all the phrases on the web that are similar in the paper. The teacher checks to see if similarities are cited, and if they aren’t, confronts the student. But this site is more practical only for larger classes.

Wikipedia is such a huge thing because students find it much easier to use than a real paper encyclopedia because it is much faster and it isn’t in twelve volumes (or more!). Most of the students I asked said Wikipedia. Some haven’t even used or heard of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Wikipedia is an example of using a digital identity because you can say you are a Professor of Religion at Stanford, but in reality be a 15-year-old looking to pull a small prank.

A digital identity is you, represented (by yourself or otherwise) online or on the web or anywhere that you represent yourself digitally. Sometimes your digital identity is information about yourself, whether it is true or false, or it could be pictures that represent you and have your name on them or are on your MySpace or any other social networking site. It could be a movie, or even a poem or a paper or anything that is associated with or attached to you. Some people put real information about themselves on the Internet. This is extremely dangerous, because the more information someone has about you, the more damage they can do. They can say really mean things via the Internet and put your name on them. They can call your phone, they can find out where you live and where you go to school. Some people can figure all this out even with fake identities, but it is a lot more likely to happen if you put real information about any part of yourself- your age, what you look like, where you are, who you are, etcetera. Many people put fake information about themselves if others can see it. This is safer than putting real information about yourself, but it is still a really bad idea. For example, if a 12-year-old were to pretend that they were talking to a 20-year-old, they could end up getting harassed online because people would act like they were talking to a 20-year-old, and not a 12-year-old. People maybe don’t realize this, but you very differently around the to different age groups, and the 12-year-old might get involved in some conversations they weren’t ready for.

  • My personal beliefs concerning the Internet are solid and simple-
  • No social networking accounts (email is fine)
  • Stick to your parents rules about the internet-they are for good reasons
  • Don’t go to sites you would be scared have your parents catch you on
  • Absolutely NO chain mail, no matter how stupid, tempting, scary or touching, even if it says it will donate money to a good cause (I have gotten into trouble over the last one!)

Although not all the sites I visit are educational (actually, it’s a far cry from that), I certainly think that people, especially young teenagers, are not using the Internet safely. Some bully, some are bullied, and some sit back and watch it all happen without saying a word to anyone who could actually do something about it all. People are not educated about being respectful, courteous, and kind even on the Internet. People are seriously racist and derogatory on the Internet, and they are not arrested or fined as they would in the real world. People have adopted the Internet as their alternative reality, so they can say and do things they wouldn’t really do- people think that using a fake name or age makes them someone else and they forget that they are doing it- just under someone else’s name.

Article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7130325.stm
Students “Should Use Wikipedia”
By Alistair Coleman