Wikipedia:Schools' FAQ
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Overview |
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This FAQ page deals with some questions teachers and school administrators might have about the content of information in Wikipedia, and use of Wikipedia by students.
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If you are thinking about assigning Wikipedia as a class project see Wikipedia:School and University projects.
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Overview
- As the world's most widely used online encyclopedia, Wikipedia will inevitably find its way into classroom activities. It might be fair to say open-source and public encyclopedias will become at least a permanent — and perhaps major — part of the public and parochial educational landscape.
- Several questions arise about the role of an open source encyclopedia in K-12 (primary and secondary school) educational settings. Concepts such as open source, copyleft, collaborative writing, and volunteer contributions for the public good can be unique ideas in educational settings. Wikipedia offers an opportunity for educators to explore concepts of public trust that are likely to continue growing in prominence throughout the lives of today's record population of youth.
- Some common questions students or educators ask about Wikipedia are listed below, with answers based on the status of Wikipedia, and on reasonable projections for the immediate future.
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Is Wikipedia accurate and reliable?
- Generally, yes, Wikipedia is accurate. Wikipedia is rapidly developing, so the reliability of the encyclopedia is improving all the time. Readers can rely on Wikipedia for a wider range of information, and for more detail as the encyclopedia grows. Because readers continually compare articles to what they already know, articles tend to become more accurate and detailed. Certain articles about many of the major sciences were developed from other free or public domain encyclopedias. This provides a reliable basis upon which encyclopedia writers could develop more current information. Wikipedia is cited almost daily in the press (see Wikipedia as a press source).
- On the other hand, it is possible for an article on Wikipedia to be biased, outdated, or factually incorrect. This is true for any resource. One should always double check the accuracy of important facts, regardless of the source. In general, popular articles are more accurate because they are read more often and therefore any errors are corrected in a more timely fashion. Very specific minor facts, like an exact date for a not very important historical detail, are less trustworthy since vandals sometimes change them. This can be difficult to detect unless a dedicated scholar is constantly watching the article.
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What keeps someone from contributing false or misleading information?
- Nothing. Anyone can, at this very moment, go to almost any page and change the information to make it misleading or wrong, or write a new article that has no basis in fact.
- However, it probably will not stay that way very long. Scores of contributors monitor the list of contributions (particularly to controversial articles), and will quickly delete nonsense or obviously wrong articles, and undo baseless edits. Many users watch Wikipedia's Recent Changes, particularly for those from anonymous users, and major articles are usually on several individuals' personal watch lists as well. If an anonymous or relatively new user changes a number or a date by a little bit, without justifying their edit, it is particularly likely to raise a red flag.
- But Wikipedia cannot be perfect. There is almost certainly inaccurate information in it, somewhere, which has not yet been discovered to be wrong. Therefore, if you are using Wikipedia for important research or a school project, you should always verify the information somewhere else — just like you should with all sources.
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What does Wiki mean?
- "WikiWiki" is a Hawaiian word for quick. Some educators ask if Wiki has anything to do with the Wiccan religion. It does not. The word "Wiki" was adopted as the name of the type of software Wikipedia runs on, a Web-based, open collaboration platform known as a wiki.
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Can students cite Wikipedia in assignments?
- It depends on what teachers accept. The best policy in any writing is to have more than one source. Wikipedia can be an excellent starting place for further research. Teachers might ask students what they did to validate the information they learned from Wikipedia. Using a comprehensive search engine such as Google, students can easily compare Wikipedia content with information from other reputable websites. Students can compare information in Wikipedia with information in other encyclopedias or books. In addition, most of our better articles have sections such as "References," "Sources," "Notes," "Further reading," or "External links," which generally contain information about sources.
- For purposes of establishing authorship and finding more sources, students may also find the articles' "History" tabs useful, as these detail every contribution — the contributor and what he or she contributed. All of our registered contributors have Talk pages for leaving them notes and many can be contacted through a form on this website by other registered users, including students, if they choose to register. A toolbox link ("E-mail this user") is also visible on user pages while logged in.
- For information about how to format citations, see Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia.
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Is it a safe environment for young people?
- Wikipedia is as safe as most interactive online environments. Participation in Wikipedia is probably safe for youths who know basic online safety practices. Wikipedia is not a social organization, and provides few opportunities for casual social interaction. Because other editors routinely monitor Wikipedia, inappropriate activity is quickly noticed and stopped.
- However, Wikipedia is not bowdlerized or censored. It contains articles on subjects such as racial slurs, controversial political groups and movements, and sexual acts. Pages, which are normally appropriate for children to use, are occasionally vandalized with rude words or content which may be offensive. Vandalism is normally noticed and removed within a few minutes — if not seconds — but it is still possible that a child may access a page before this is dealt with. Teachers should supervise young children on Wikipedia, as they would in any other online environment.
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What is open-source media?
- Open-source media is a kind of information produced by open groups of developers in which anybody who wants to can use the information. Open-source production emerged among software engineers with the production of GNU/Linux, an open-source computer operating system. MediaWiki is an open source software package that supports an open source encyclopedia.
- Open-source production relies on qualified users to maintain a constantly improving collection, whether it is an open collection of computer code or of encyclopedic information. Open source collections typically maintain back-up resources, so if a developer accidentally damages the code or the content, it can easily be reverted to an earlier, stable version. The same backup system provides protection against malicious damage to an open-source project.
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Why do people contribute to open source?
- Few surveys have developed reliable answers to why people contribute to open source works like Wikipedia. Some sort of public interest or community spirit is often part of the motive. Open source projects offer an opportunity to contribute to something that has lasting value and that will continue to grow. Open source publishing allows writers and software developers to apply their skills outside of a strictly business environment. Casual writers and editors sometimes participate as a hobby or as a learning experience.
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Why have we not heard of this before?
- Wikipedia is relatively new, but chances are always getting better than ever that you have heard of it before. Wikipedia's rapid growth recently has been reported in several national news programs. Wikipedia was established in January 2001, and is now making a place for itself in the world's collection of knowledge. As the encyclopedia grows, more people learn about it every day, much in the same way Internet use surged in the late 1990s. See Wikipedia:Press coverage.
- Wikipedia does not advertise as many new services do, so public knowledge of Wikipedia is mostly a result of word of mouth, readers discovering the service while browsing online, or people learning about the encyclopedia from news reports.
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Beyond information from the encyclopedia, what can students learn from Wikipedia?
- Most youths will likely at some point become involved in interactive online activities. For educators, youths' involvement with Wikipedia provides an opportunity to survey youths' understanding of online safety, and to teach appropriate practices. Educators can use Wikipedia as a way of teaching students to develop hierarchies of credibility that are essential for navigating and conducting research on the Internet.
- Wikipedia provides an opportunity for teachers to discuss the concept of the public domain. Wikipedia is an opportunity to participate in an open community that relies primarily on mutual respect and cooperation, but which is not related to familiar authority figures some youths might tend to oppose.
- Editing in Wikipedia is an opportunity to learn to participate in collective editorial processes. Wikipedia presents a ready opportunity for youths to research, compile and publish articles for peer review. For youths who contribute images, selection and production of an image provides opportunities to learn what a market wants from an artist. Youths who master skills for accurate writing and drawing about encyclopedic subjects are better equipped to develop their own style in more creative genres.
- Because all articles in Wikipedia must conform to Neutral point of view, students participating in collaborative editing activities on Wikipedia are building experience in detecting and eliminating bias in writing.
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- Here's a quick scenario. Take a group of fifth grade students and break them into groups, with each group picking a topic that interests them. Any topic. Dolphins, horses, hockey, you name it.
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- Next, send the groups of kids to Wikipedia to look up the topic they selected. Chances are, someone has already created a Wikipedia entry on that particular subject. The horse, for example, has an extensive entry on the website. It certainly looks accurate and informative, but is it? Unfortunately, there are no citations for any of the facts claimed about horses on the page.
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- This is where it gets fun. The group of students breaks down the content on the page into manageable chunks, each with a certain amount of facts that need to be verified. The students then spend the necessary time to fact-check the content. As the students work their way through the list, they'll find themselves with two possible outcomes: either they'll verify that a particular factoid is correct, or they'll prove that it's not. Either way, they'll generate a paper trail, as it were, of sources proving the various claims one way or another.
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- Once the Wikipedia entry has been fact-checked, the teacher creates a Wikipedia login for the class. They go to the entry's talk page and present their findings, laying out every idea that needs to be corrected. Then, they edit the actual entry to make the corrections, with all sources cited. Similarly, for all the parts of the entry they've verified as accurate, they list sources confirming it. That way, each idea presented in the Wikipedia entry has been verified and referenced - hopefully with multiple sources.
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- Get enough classrooms doing this, you kill several birds with one stone: Wikipedia's information gets better, students help give back to the Net by improving the accuracy of an important online resource, and teachers have a way to make lemons into lemonade, turning Wikipedia from a questionable information source to a powerful tool for information literacy. -- Turning Wikipedia into an Asset for Schools, Andy Carvin, "Waste of Bandwidth" blog, July 11, 2005
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Can a school group set up its own Wiki?
- Yes. MediaWiki is an open source software package, which means anyone who knows how to use it and who has access to a server computer may set up his or her own Wiki project.
- Access to a Wiki database can be password protected, to allow groups to develop an open document within their membership. Passwords can allow a Wiki to be developed by a school club, a teachers group, a regional group of schools, or any group within an educational community. MediaWiki databases might be used for school histories, to develop yearbook material or as class projects. A group can operate a Wiki project on-line or within a closed Local Area Network.
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Where can I learn more about Wikipedia?
- Visit Wikipedia:About for more information about us, as well as the Community Portal or some of our FAQs. The main page is also available.
| This article is part of the Wikipedia FAQ |
| FAQ pages... |
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Overview - Readers - Schools - Contributing - Editing - Administration - Technical - Problems - Miscellaneous - Copyright |
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