To Wiki or Not to Wiki?

My opinion concerning the use of Wikis, specifically Wikipedia, in the classroom changed after learning more about Wikis.  I have used Wikipedia from time to time to look up things.  In doing so, I assumed that all the information on the site was researched and posted by some sort of institution or company that would fact check every statement before use.  I likened it to an electronic Encyclopedia Britannica or electronic World Book Encyclopedia.  Therefore, I never questioned the completeness or reliability of the information.  I had no idea that anyone with access to the Internet could make changes to the site.  That realization changed my opinion of Wikipedia.

Now knowing this, I would not fully trust any information found on the site.  I am not suggesting that there are Wikipedia saboteurs who get their thrills from messing up sites or posting erroneous information just to screw up the Wikipedia users.  Then again, that doesn’t mean there aren’t those who do that.  I do understand that when information is posted, proper credit should be given to the original source of the information, but really, who looks at the footnotes?  Once a person finds the answer to a question on the Internet, it is taken almost as gospel.  “Well, it is on the Internet, so it must be true.”  I make this statement because I have done that to a point myself.  Once I find the information I am searching for, I don’t read the fine print.  I assume that somebody else has already authenticated it.  My thought has always been that, “well, if it is on Wikipedia, it must be right.”  I think I developed this way of thinking because of the wide use of Wikipedia.  Even if you rarely use the Internet, you have at the very least heard of Wikipedia.

I am certainly not of the opinion that Wikipedia should be banished from the classroom.  It is a good starting point for any type of research.  I now know that I will have to guide my students as to their use of Wikipedia.  I will need to teach them how to judge the reliability of the information found there much like judging the reliability of any website.  I do see the potential value of a classroom wiki.  Lower grades could create a wiki with a separate page for each subject – “What we did in Math,” “What we did in Science,” “What we did in Reading,” etc.  At the end of the year, the wiki would contain a year’s worth of learning.  This could be used as a reference the following year as the students build on knowledge acquired in the previous year.  In the higher grades, a separate wiki could be built for each subject that would contain not only the notes from the class but a synthesis of the information.  Sections could be added to the pages to address the higher order thinking of Bloom’s Taxonomy.  True understanding of the subject area could also come about by collaborating with other classrooms of the same subject within the same building or from other classes of the same subject from anywhere if the wiki is made available to individuals outside a specific school.  Of course to avoid the shadow of doubt which has now been cast upon Wikipedia, teacher approval of posts would be required before students could add to the site.