Wikipedia

In talking with my group about Ideological Management, I began to brainstorm about how this relates to the idea of Absolute Knowledge.  Spring addresses the notion that a major function of schools was to control things like politics, language, and religion or in short, ideleological management.  They attempted to achieve this by way of a strict educational environment where there was no room for different opinions or interpretations.  In short, schools were places where absolute knowledge was really the only accepted form of knowledge.

While we would like to believe that we have moved away from this concept, there are certain boundaries in present classrooms that lead me to believe we have not.  There is still a very strong notion of responses that are either right or wrong.  In our group discussion, I brought up Wikipedia as an example of this.  Students are told time and time again that Wikipedia is not an acceptable resource for research because some of the information presented might be wrong.  The reason that this information may be wrong is that anybody can post to Wikipedia.

What most teachers view as a flaw in Wikipedia, I view as a major strength.  The fact that anybody can post to Wikipedia makes it an instrumental resource for finding other perspectives.  If we abandon the idea that every question has a right and wrong answer, we should encourage our students to look for other ideas.

We dicussed how in the past of American Education, history books only taught about slavery from the perspective of the white man.  Is it really possible to understand what was going on if we only look at one side of the equation?  There was probably very little mentioned about the adversity faced by slaves in their every day lives; beatings, lack of medical attention, children being separated from their families, unsanitary conditions, etc...  Now, imagine Wikipedia had existed in the 50s, 60s and 70s.  It very likely would have been a resource where one would have been able to find information about the other side of the story.  Information that was different from what the textbooks said but not wrong.  Information that is very valuable to understanding slavery in America.

With that said, I kind of understand the argument against the use of Wikipedia.  The fact that anyone can post lends the issue of pulished information that is completely false.  I could go to the Wikipedia page about The Sky right now and write, "the sky is bright purple," if I wanted to.  This would not be another prospective.  This would be a lie.

So, is it right for us to have our students completely avoid a resource that could be so full of unique perspectives because we are scared they are going to find a lie? I don't think so.  I think it is part of our jobs as educators to teach our students to be critical thinkers.  If they find a piece of information on Wikipedia that seems different from what they learned in the past, they could react in a couple ways:

• First, they might take that information as fact, and cite Wikipedia in their work.
• We do not want them to engage in this sort of learning where they believe something just because it is published on a website.
• Second, they could assume it is wrong because they never learned it in school.
• We also want to stray from this sort of thinking where teachers and textbooks are the be all, end all of our students' knowledge.
• The third, and best, option would be to research the topic further.

A quick google search will likely bring up numerous pages about the claim.  If we teach our students effective critical thinking skills, they should be able to formulate intelligent opinions based on what they find.  If their google search brings up articles from credible magazines, newspapers, and anthologies, they may be able to deduce that the information they found on Wikipedia actually has some substance.  However, if their google search only finds blog of conspiracy theorists (just for example), they should be able to write that information off as nonsensical. 

As a sidenote, I think the use of Wikipedia in schools would actually benefit students.  When they have teachers available to guide them in deciding what is credible and what is not, their critical thinking skills will be greatly improved.

I really wish we would move away from the idea that Wikipedia should not be used.  If we instead claim it should be used carefully, I think our students would have a solid resource full of unique perspectives on almost every topic.  In the event they find and consequently believe a false piece of information, an educator will be there to guide them in understanding ways to recognize uncredible sources in the future.  No harm, no foul.  Forbidding the use of Wikipedia, in my opinion, is restricting our students' knowledge.