I can see the benefit of wikis for sharing information but I would have serious concerns about the accuracy and reliability of the content when poeple have free rein to add and edit. My son was doing a project recently on natural disasters and when I came to look over it with him it turned out that most of his information had come from wiki sites. While none of it was earth-shatteringly important stuff I am sure there was little cause for concern but his total belief in Wikipedia as 'gospel' wrorried me a bit.
I am highly suspicious since the day my brother sent me a Widipedia link about our tiny village in Ireland. Clearly he or some of his cronies had edited it to include the 'fact' that Taughmaconnell was the birthplace of 'the famous porn star Joe Bloggs' (for Joe Bloggs read the name of one of his other mates! Naughty stuff! Have not checked in on it lately but if Wikipedia's claim to be hot on information accuracy is true I would hope it is well gone by now!
In the library one would like to think we could trust a wiki to supplement to team meetings for sharing knowledge and information. We are of course all so much more mature than my baby brother - wouldn't you agree Teena, Troy, Beth..........????
We are mature aren't we... no doubts the increasing disturbing behaviour on Thursday will help boost this claim.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the thing about wikis is that it relies on the communities to create, modify and keep watch over the infotmation. So the more involved a communities is in the resource, the better the resource will be.
Totally agree Tina...my son's school has banned Wikipedia for any school projects. If adopted by our libraries, it would need constant and careful policing, otherwise who knows what could happen in this modern-sueing world we now live in!!!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, we are so much more mature than your baby brother Tina ...
ReplyDeleteUsing a staff wiki within the library might not have the problems Wikipedia has. As Troy says it comes down to the community, in this instance the staff, being involved and taking ownership of the resource.
As for using Wikipedia for school work, I've always advised against it. However, I have recently reviewed my aversion to Wikipedia to concede that it is a good starting point for finding information but always scroll down to the references at the bottom and check the original source.
And now I'm off to look up Taughmaconnell ... for research purposes of course ...
Wikipedia can be a good (or at least an interesting) starting point for information. BUT, I would NEVER use it as a reference in an assignment.
ReplyDeleteIf I did find some relevant information on Wikipedia, I'd confirm it with another source (preferably, a book or a journal article) before using it in an essay.