Should Wikipedia be forbidden in students' social studies research?
As teachers, we want to prepare our students for assignments they will have in college. Most classes will require them to write papers in APA format. They will also have to write research papers based on reliable sources. Wikipedia is not one of these reliable sources. Of course there are many unreliable sources that students will encounter, but Wikipedia seems to appear at the top of every search regardless of the search engine. Wikipedia does offer a wide variety of information on basically any topic. The downfall of the site is derived from it's very name WIKIpedia... it is a wiki and the information on a wiki can be altered by anyone. When searching for information on social studies topics (or any other topic) for a research paper, students need to be able to validate the source so that they know their information is accurate. Since Wikipedia's creator even stated that the website was an unreliable source, I feel like there should be no doubt in any one's mind that it should not be used by students.
I agree totally with you. Everytime I assign a research paper I have someone write false information from Wikipedia. It is not reliable as you stated because it can be altered. I remind my students of this all time. It is so frustrating to have to deal with this issue. I always start my lessons by telling my students not to use Wikipedia for my research papers.
ReplyDeleteI agree!
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