I am a big time personal user of wikipedia. Whenever I have a research project or even just a topic I’m curious about, wikipedia is usually one of my first go-to’s. The main reason being that wikipedia is usually at the top of a search result making it convenient to view. Secondly, the pages are usually written at an understandable level, making it simple to read when you want to get the general idea of something.
Many believe wikipedia isn’t a reliable source for information, for good reason. Wikis can be edited by anyone. For the most part, a lot of the information is fairly reliable but there is a chance that it’s not. For that reason, although I use wikipedia to get a general understanding, I try not to use it as a source for papers or projects unless I truly cannot find something else that reiterates the point I’m trying to make.
As far as student-use goes, I don’t teach a subject that requires a lot of essay writing or in-depth internet research. If I was teaching a subject like history or english, I think I would limit the student’s ability to source Wikipedia or other wikis. I would probably allow them to only use it for one source, rather than have a full list of wikipedia pages. This allows the students to gather information from wikipedia but have other pages to back up their facts.
As far as YouTube goes, I love it. Of course you have to be careful when using it, but it’s great for math related tutorials and videos. When I was in school, youtube was blocked from the server and although it’s rarer for that to be the case nowadays, it’s still something teachers have to deal with. When using Youtube videos to present to the class teachers can use a converter to download the video so they don’t have to rely on the school’s connection. However, for research projects, any blocks would make it significantly more difficult for students to use. If YouTube is available, I would use an “asterisk” and have the students only cite sources from reputable channels (PBS, Mental Floss, etc.). This could get into a grey area though because how does one determine reputability for individual youtube channels? Adults (especially in today’s age) have a hard time distinguishing facts from fiction, how do we impart this knowledge to our students when there are so many grey areas like wikipedia and youtube, along with the “alternative facts” we’ve all come to know?
Sabrina,
ReplyDeleteWe both agree on the convenience and simplicity of Wikipedia. It’s always at the top of almost any search I make and it provides adequate information. As I have mentioned on my blog, Wikipedia is also a helpful source for students but the only time it should be restricted is when writing research papers. The same thing applies to YouTube. I also use it a lot in my teaching especially for videos and tutorials.
That's why I love Wikipedia. It's simple to navigate and easy to use. It's incredibly user friendly and seems to have one of the largest databases of information available for any user free of charge. Same with YouTube. Easy and simple to use, can't beat it!
DeleteSabrina,
ReplyDeleteWhen I thought of students using YouTube in my classroom I thought of it as a "reteaching" tool, but you are right it can be used for research. As a Spanish teacher I can carefully choose YouTube channels to explore a unit's content or learn about a country.
I mentioned this in another post, but YouTube videos would be great for WebQuests as well, especially if there's a written component involved. It gives the students the opportunity to see what type of YouTube videos are valuable for research in class.
DeleteI have also found that there are some really excellent videos on YouTube for help with math, and I think you could really help students by sharing these with them. There definitely are a number of reliable YouTube videos out there that we can confidently direct students to, but sometimes we do want students to choose resources and references on their own. I think this could be an excellent use for a class Diigo, where you can share many links and categorize them for students to easily find what they need. In this way, you could provide students with a large, searchable database of reputable channels and videos to choose from and explore.
ReplyDeleteDiigo, along with a wiki, could be used by you and your colleagues to develop a repository of 'vetted' (i.e., vetted by you) resources that you can all use in your classes.
ReplyDelete