Wikipedia

Image Courtesy Of Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project, and frequently updated news resource. Wikipedia seeks to create a summary of all human knowledge in the form of an online encyclopedia. Since it has virtually unlimited disk space it can have far more topics than can be covered by any conventional print encyclopedias. Wikipedia employs the open editing model called "wiki. This open nature of the editing model has been central to most criticism of Wikipedia. For example, a reader of an article cannot be certain that it has not been compromised by the insertion of false information or the removal of essential information. (Wikipedia, 2010)

Wikipedia's, even though 100% accuracy cannot be guaranteed, still prove to be a valuable tool in the classroom. Students will, no doubt, utilise this resource at different times in their research. They need to be informed that the information should be used as a starting point only, and further research is required to prove accuracy of information.

Wikipedia fits in with connectivism. "Connectivism is driven by the understanding that decisions are based on rapidly altering foundations. New information is continually being acquired. The ability to draw distinctions between important and unimportant information is vital. The ability to recognize when new information alters the landscape based on decisions made yesterday is also critical." (Siemens, G. ,2004)

Wikipedia can also be a way of incorporating some higher order thinking, as in Bloom's taxonomy, into the classroom. Students can analyse the information given in wikipedia, complete more research, then evaluate the accuracy of the wikipedia information.

Feel free to post your comments on the role you believe wikipedia plays in our 21st century classrooms.