June 2009 Archives

Is Wikipedia any use for students and academics?  Are the derogatory comments justified and can it be used in ways that support learning?

So many times when I hear academics refer to Wikipedia it is in condescending tones.  Comments from "You can't trust anything in Wikipedia", "It's just written by amateurs", "It's not real peer-reviewed content', and "I would fail any student of mine who referenced Wikipedia in an essay".  Maybe it's just the negative comments that I hear although a quick search of the web will pull up similar comments.  It is interesting though that academics also use Wikipedia and in a 2008 survey on eLearning and technology use at the University of Waikato,  50% of our staff said that they had used Wikipedia.  (That compares to 93% of our students.)