One of my first sources of information on the internet is Wikipedia and I love that site! I probably use Wikipedia 3 or 4 times a week – on average. Sometimes I will look things up and see related subjects or information that does deeper and I use it repeatedly throughout the whole research project. To me, it is just like the Encyclopedia Brittanica that I used in the school library when I was a kid. Except using it online gets me there faster and easier.
So my cousin, Gail, is a senior in high school and was asking me about some information and I told her that I would look it up online using Wikipedia and I was shocked when she said that her teachers says they are not allowed to use Wikipedia. I could not understand why a teacher would say that. My cousin says that true educators do not consider Wikipedia to be an authority site, because individual people can go on the site and change things.
Well, that was kind of the whole point of the Wikipedia project – that people contributed to it. I have not come across any information that I would be suspicious of or doubt its accuracy. Have you ever found anything on the site that was false information? I would really like to know if that is a problem or just a bullshit cop out from teachers.
