So, here's the question. Do I like Wikipedia? I love it! Do you use Wikipedia? Every day! Do you recommend it for research? Hmmm. That's where it gets a little tricky.
So, let's break this down. I'll combine my love of Wikipedia and my usage of Wikipedia. First, I'm a curious girl. I like to know details of authors, tv shows, movies, etc. So, if I'm trying to figure out what I missed on Gilmore Girls, I'll just use Wikipedia to look up the episodes. Last year, we were studying Eric Carle. I found some basic information about him on his website. However, Wikipedia had the information I wanted. Also, if my kids wanted to see the movie, "Transformers", I could go to Wikipedia and look up general information related to the movie. Wikipedia is a neutral source so I wouldn't get reviews, but I would get synopsis information. I was given some canna's yesterday and wanted to find out about soil, temperature and sun. I was able to find out all of this and more. Finally, Scott and I went to the U2 concert a couple of weeks ago. I was trying to describe the stage to no avail. I checked on Wikipedia and found pictures and a thorough description.
What do you notice about all of my examples? They are all related to my life! Not one example relates to Graduate School or legitimate research. Though I must confess sometimes used Wikipedia to explain a difficult concept, I don't use it with documentation. For instance, I've been trying to determine how literature circles can be used with young readers. I looked it up on Wikipedia for a general understanding. This helped me get an overview while I look for scholarly journals and texts to give me the specific facts and research I need.
Should a student use Wikipedia as a source for a research paper? No! Absolutely not! Should a student use Wikipedia to gain a preliminary understanding on a particular concept? Yes!
Now, go look something up on Wikipedia!
No comments:
Post a Comment