Wikipedia, for those who are unfamiliar (probably no one), started as a free online encyclopedia that is edited by its users. Genius right? People that have extensive knowledge on any topic can relay it to the public in a format that is one, accessible and two immediate. In my first experiences with the website I remember rejoicing because it gave me an avenue to quench my own inquisitive thirst. So I read it for recreational purposes. Who is so and so and what happened at this event are things that I researched. I took what I read as truth because, when is the internet ever wrong?
I was soon informed that everything on it was a lie, or at least should be scrutinized beyond all realistic questioning. Reports came out stating that false information was posted and people used Wikipedia as the brunt of a joke. When talking about school reports and papers I constantly heard "You must use internet resources, and no, Wikipedia is not a valid source" from all my teachers. How could something so noble be demonized so much?
But then, something great happened. Wikipedia started to some of its information validated. Someone (or many people) started verifying information on this once erroneous website. And it is then that it was given some credence. At the bottom of the page one can even see where the author has cited their sources. When I started working in the high school library that I work in now, I realized that Wikipedia is an amazing resource.
Evaluation
New media, as conveyed by Wilber article "Special themed issue: Beyond 'new' literacies" and the "Literacy and the New Technologies in School Education: Meeting the L(IT)eracy Challenge", is collaborative and participatory. It is through this that we have the breath of knowledge that we do at our fingertips because other people, sometimes with legitimate expertise, put information out there for use to use. When I first started school, research was very difficult. If you had no background knowledge of a particular, abstract topic, you faced an uphill battle. Now the collaborations, which both serve to enrich our knowledge as well as "self verify" itself (conflicting information being scrutinized for apparent truth) give us something. Wikipedia, which should never be the only resource, gives us a chance at some understanding. Heck, I even looked up "New Media" and found some very interesting reading! So, the world is changing and Rizvi and Lingard (1997) have found that "Students are not going to wait for their teachers to catch up with the new textual practices that they already prefer." So we, as educators (prospective and current) can seek to utilize our new tools and reach our target audience better, on their (preferred) terms. We should seek to make learning authentic and real and allow as many avenues of learning conveyance to be available to our students. We need to make learning something that students take some responsibility for so that they have more connection with the content. And as teachers, Wilber (2010) states, "[have a necessity to learn], as part of a new literacies framework, visual literacy and critical pedagogy, in order to engage students to better understand their world and construct learning."
Sources:
Boomer, G., Green, e. B., & Teaching, A. A. (n.d.). Literacy and the new technologies in school education: Meeting the l(IT)eracy challenge? - Free Online Library. Free News, Magazines, Newspapers, Journals, Reference Articles and Classic Books - Free Online Library. Retrieved September 15, 2013
Rizvi, F. & Lingard, B. 1997, `Foreword' in Page to Screen: Taking Literacy into the Electronic Era, ed. I. Snyder, Allen& Unwin, Sydney.
Wilber, D.J. (2010). Special themed issue: Beyond ʻnewʼ literacies. Digital Culture &
Education, 2:1, 1-6.
Greetings Erik,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your post and the description of Wikipedia. I agree that collaborative sites such as Wikipedia are a great tool to be used to begin research. I am not too sure that it can be utilized as a reliable resource just yet though. There have been some studies in regards to the use by students that demonstrates the effective use of Wikipedia as a starting point for research. A great read of one can be found at http://uncommonculture.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2830/2476.
I have also found an article as to the correctness of Wikipedia information were it found that at least 13 percent of material has errors. This I found at http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1413/1331.
Thank you for your post.
I've heard similar things with regards to Wikipedia as a resource for research, and for that I am skeptical about using it for my own research. However, I love Wikipedia for other reasons. One of them is that is a good place to get an idea of what a certain topic or issue is about, and what the influences on that topic are. For example, I was having a difficult time reading the assigned text on critical literacy, especially the terminology of Discourse vs. discourse vs. discursive (I'm not a very good reader to throwing words like that all together in the same sentences confuses the daylights out of me). After looking through some Wikipedia references, I had a better idea of what they were talking about and could go back and read the assigned text with a little better comprehension. Another aspect of Wikipedia I like is that it links quickly to other related resources, sometimes other Wikipedia pages which again need to be questioned, but sometimes to more sound information. This really helps me expedite my searching and makes my life easier.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments Matthew and Dale. While I was reading about Wikipedia on, of all places Wikipedia, I found some interesting information and I'll look further into it but it seems that in 2005 Wikipedia's accuracy on its articles about science were close to the reliablilty found in Britannica. I've seen some of the silly/acts of vandalism found on Wikipedia but through most of my "wiki-inig" I have never really seen anything that seemed far fetched. Also I wanted to mention that in terms of research the general information is helpful as well as the citations/links to other verified information on the bottom. So I'll tell students that if they find some information that is valuable, check the footnotes to get a news site article or newspaper article.
ReplyDeleteErik,
ReplyDeleteI felt that when you mentioned that "students need to take some responsibility" for their learning is so very important. It is certainly the direction we need to encourage since the children of today will need to be able to learn new skills and adapt quickly to many new ways industry will demand of them. The first step to their success is establishing the continued responsibility to learn.
Additionally you mention from Wilber (2010) that teachers also need to adapt to our students environments in order to engage them to learn. I believe that by adapting and using new medias we have more chance to make a difference in their lives because these students can relate more easily to newer medias.
Lydia
I think you make several great points, Eric - the one that stands out the most to me is that students aren't going to wait for their teachers to catch up on new technology. As for Wiki, I also think it is a great starting point for research on all kinds of topics. If I research anything on Wiki, I generally look for the original source that's been cited and find that text or journal article if possible. What really excites me is the potential accessibility of online academic libraries for authentic publications of new research studies.
ReplyDelete