An editorial I wrote for Science Progress regarding digital literacy, education, and Wikipedia is now available. As those who read this blog are probably already aware I find the whole “ban Wikipedia” movement humorous. But, this article takes a slightly different track and claims banning it is actually irresponsible.
Nice article, David. I particularly like this bit:
What is perhaps more important and useful, though, is the extent to which Wikipedia also preserves the debate and discourse around a particular subject. Two of the most important features that I point out to students when I teach them about Wikipedia are the history pages and the discussion pages. Unlike traditional archives, Wikipedia preserves not only its past representations, but also the discourse which produced the current entry.
Like you, I always point out the discussion pages to my students as the most interesting aspect of wikipedia entries. However, I’ve never framed it in the way you do here . . . I think that this is a very fruitful approach.
By the way, I’m also a fan of your article on RSS feeds in Blogs for Learning — just recently used that in a class.
Keep up the good work!
If I can engage in a little self-promotion, as well, I would like to link to the first episode in my teaching center’s new podcast. It features an interview with a fantastic history professor here at my school who uses Wikipedia’s history and discussion pages to teach history majors how to think like historians. It’s a great classroom example of what you describe in your editorial, and the professor featured in the podcast is incredibly well-spoken about the educational benefits of this approach.