Tuesday, March 4, 2014

This Is Me #15

Small Wikipedia Rant

I was first made aware of Wikipedia when I was in high school. To me, it was like a universal "Spark Notes", that would give me a general overview of things I needed to know for class, which were usually enough to understand elementary concepts. Teachers didn't like this idea, much like they didn't like the idea of students using "Spark Notes" to understand books instead of reading the material themselves. It's understandable as a teacher because your teaching method is being circumvented. If you're teaching the book and Spark Notes just tells students what each allegory represents and where poetic and literally devices are used, there's really not much point in a teacher repeating the same ideas in front of a class room. It's much the same when students can look at the Wikipedia page for "Early Modern Europe" and get a concise idea the history of that period. Simply, such a convenient and in depth resource renders both the teacher and their teaching mediam such as novels and textbooks, useless in terms of conveying information (teachers are still relevant to facilitate learning).

I remember most arguments against Wikipedia were that they were "untrustworthy" as a source. In fact, I was not allowed to cite it in any papers even throughout my days in university. And while that may have been true initially, that is no longer the case. The organization, policing, and accuracy checking that Wikipedia has done for its content has made it comparable to its predecessor, the hard copy encyclopedia. Moreover, Wikipedia has replaced the encyclopedia (where are you, Britannica?) in the economy. It's free to the user, easy to access through the internet, it's layout allows fast mobile loading, it's content is created from volunteers, and has a robust search engine.

However, even though Wikipedia has replaced the encyclopedia in modern society, I fear it will take much longer for it to be used in the classroom. Textbook companies will continue to lobby the use of their expensive products in schools, an area of the budget which could be potentially cut and given to better educators or used to compensate a higher standard of educators.