Wikipedia Reflection

It usually depends on how much I know about my topic as to whether I will use Wikipedia or not. If I know absolutely nothing about it, I might start with Wikipedia and write down some important ideas, names, theories, etc. I will then go to google or search journal articles on the university’s website for those specific things. In high school I heavily used Wikipedia. Many of my teachers allowed us to use it as a source, but we had to have a number of other sources as well. I definitely relied on it too much for my research, but I learned quickly that that didn’t fly in college.

As a teacher, I don’t think I would allow my students to quote from Wikipedia. I would allow them to use it in a similar way that I do. We may go to the computer lab and structure our time. The first fifteen minutes could be spent writing, by hand, important ideas from the Wikipedia page concerning their topic. This would allow them to get a good start on their research and help them know what to look for in the first place. After that they would only be allowed to use what they wrote down in order to search on google or the school’s online collection of journal articles.

This article seemed to cover both sides fairly. I think it encourages the use of Wikipedia in the way it was meant to be used: as an encyclopedia. The article states that no encyclopedia is meant to “be used as a sole and final authoritative source” anyway (Johnson, p. 2). It also points out the Wikipedia has warnings on the pages that may contain bias or disputable facts. The article explains that one important difference between Wikipedia and a normal encyclopedia is that Wikipedia covers a much broader array of topics. This can be useful to students when they have a rare or very specific topic and do not know where to start their research.

Johnson also points out some key questions students should ask when evaluating the credibility of any website. Not only do we need to worry about Wikipedia, but the internet in general. I would definitely make sure my students learned how to do this before they begin any research project. I would also require that they use a minimum number of book resources. I think it is important for them to build this skill as well. Books provide in depth knowledge that most websites cannot and students need to know how to find this knowledge.