Wikipedia: Ask Questions!

I visit wikipedia.org frequently. If I have a cursory question about an author, term, current event, or theory, then I google it and access the top link, which appears as wikipedia 99% of the time. However, before I open the link I tell myself that I am access a site authorized by the creative commons, and I need to corroborate the information based on the sources, reference, or links provided. Most of the time I decided to use wikipedia to jog my memory. I may have forgotten where I heard something, or who I should attribute some term to, and I authenticate the information with my own memory, plus, the book or books at hand. I must admit that I access wiki technology beyond wikipedia to mine dense texts, but I always corroborate the information with the text at hand while considering the edition.

As to where I usually start researching a topic, it depends. If I have a text in my library, then I open that first. If I have the text, and I know I can find it hypertextually, and I do not want to spend time flipping through, then I access the hypertext copy. If the question elicits in the form of trivia, then I usual google it and access the first link, i.e. wikipedia. If I access wikipedia, and I want to know more about the topic, then I access the links and investigate the sources.

Based on my own frequency to utilize wikipedia and critically assess the sources, I would allow students to provide sources originating from wikipedia. However, I would develop and distribute specific guidelines for students who chose to cite wikipedia. Above and beyond the normal MLA or APA guidelines, I would provide a rubric that forced them to ask the questions I would ask when extracting authenticity from an unaccredited text. In other words, the student must display the skills of rigorous scholarship to support their exposition.

I agree with the Doug Johnson's assessment of the encyclopedic climate as a paradigm shift of information accessibility, standards, and engagement. The wiki technology of web 2.o allows the creative commons to interact with encyclopedic knowledge that rates otherwise hackneyed and stagnant. Students who experience technology as a categorical imperative have the opportunity develop a relationship with authors, theorists, scientists, events, politics, religions, diagnoses, geography, and phenomena by creating and editing wikipedia entries. Also, students enjoy sabotaging pages with false information, which means that they access and engage the factual content before falsifying it. In either case they participate in a dialogue. As Mr. Johnson states that he prefers the testimonial-driven tripadvisor.com over the expert advise of Fodors or Frommers when planning a trip, the students we teach prefer the social network of knowledge constructed by wikipedia.