[LM_NET] Should students use Wikipedia as a source?

[Ann Ewbank <Ann.Ewbank@ASU.EDU>]

Dear Colleagues,

A few days ago I received the following communication from an  
academic librarian regarding a Webquest I created. I asked her if I  
could share her thoughts with LM_NET, as I thought she posed  
interesting questions about the use of Wkipedia and other open-source  
sites, and she consented.

Should students use Wikipedia? If so, in what contexts? The webquest  
can be found here: http://members.cox.net/adutton1/waffle.html

"Today, I was assisting my fifth grade child as she worked on your  
Everything on a Waffle WebQuest, which was assigned by her language  
arts teacher.  I was surprised to see that the first two links were  
to articles from Wikipedia.  Since this is an open source web site,  
the information is not considered reliable.  As professionals who  
encourage good academic practice, I encourage you to consider  
revising your WebQuest. The use of a source such as this, especially  
since this is used to teach children, is highly questionable.
        As I work with college students each day I tell them not to use  
Wikipedia in their research assignments.  Wikipedia itself provides a  
disclaimer about its use for scholarly purposes.  When my child had  
been assigned Wikipedia earlier in the school year, I sent a note  
warning the teacher about the perils of open source web information.   
While the WWW provides a wealth of valuable information, it must be  
used with critical assessment of the content.  It is our  
responsibility as educators to guide our students appropriately."

Ann

Ann Dutton Ewbank, Ph.D.
President, Arizona Library Association
Education Liaison Librarian
Fletcher Library
Arizona State University at the West campus
P.O. Box 37100
Phoenix, Arizona 85069-7100
602.543.8527
Fax 602.543.6500

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