Ok, ok, maybe not Wikipedia since most faculty seem to turn away from Wikipedia like vampires turn away from the sun…
In this article, I want to discuss why faculty don’t like Wikipedia, if wikis have any value in higher education and if student created wikis have value.
A wiki is simply a piece of software that allows multiple users to edit content on a web page. Wikipedia is disliked by many faculty because the people that edit are not always experts and the information can be wrong or biased in many entries. In fact, in a 2006 Wired Campus article the founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, said that Wikipedia is not a definitive source and should be used to get a general overview of a topic before beginning in-depth research. However, I know for a fact (from personal experience, I must admit) that many college students do research by Googling a topic and Wikipedia entries are often in the top five Google results, so they are going to get used as references.
College professors (in general) don’t like Wikipedia. Does this mean wikis as a whole don’t have value in higher education?
There are at least two well-known wikis that are edited by experts, Citizendium and Knol (a Google product). Both of these sites’ purpose is to provide high quality information provided by experts. In fact, on Knol’s front page you can view the top authors – several Ph.D.s, an M.D. and a photographer.
I searched World War 2 on both sites and received vastly different results.
The result from Citizendium look a lot like Wikipedia with an outline on the right hand side of screen and pictures throughout the article.
The results from Knol are very different from Wikipedia; they look similar to Google search results. The Knol results are shorter, more specific mini-articles.
It would be interesting to see what faculty members think of these two wikis and if they are an improvement over Wikipedia as a resource used by students.
Beyond expert created wikis, there is software (free!) that instructors can use to manage student created wikis. Many instructional technologists think wikis are a low hanging fruit, a relatively easy way to enhance student learning using web 2.0 technology.
Benefits from using wikis:
- In higher education, generally, a student works hard on a paper and turns it in the professor for a grade. After college, when an individual writes or produces a piece of work, it is seen by more than one person. Writing content that is available to the world while in college may prepare the student for his/her career better.
- Team members can collaboratively work on assignment and not have to meet in person. Since wikis can have several editors, group members can work together while not being physically together.
- Learn different writing styles/techniques when writing “encyclopedia” entry and not a regular term paper.
Challenges to using wikis:
- Professor has to learn new technology and administer it during semester.
- See 3 Challenges to using wikis by Ruth Reynard in Campus Technology
Thoughts??
Leave a comment