making the most of wikipedia f crawford whp federation libraries jan 2010
TRANSCRIPT
Making the most of Wikipedia
F Crawford WHP Federation Libraries Jan 2010
Wikipedia is often frowned upon as an academic source for 4 main reasons
1. Research projects shouldn’t rely on encyclopaedias
F Crawford WHP Federation Libraries Jan 2010
Wikipedia is a general encyclopaedia.
As you progress through school and college, your teachers will expect more than just base line information
They will expect you to use more scholarly information that you can cite
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2. It‘s not permanent
Information on Wikipedia can change from day to day or even hour to hour
(However, you can go back to an earlier version of the article using the History tab at the top of the page)
You may quote a fact then return to the page another day and find the fact has vanished
Help, I’m melting!
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You can click on the Permanent Linkin the toolbar
and your link will point to a page whose contents will never change.
Or you can keep a link from your work to the page which stays the same
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3. You can’t trust Wikipedia.
What is their level of expertise?
What is their bias?
Anyone can contribute anonymously
Look here - (especially the last few sentences)It was more than 6 months before this article was caught and changed to a non-malicious version
Wikipedia can be easily vandalised and false or malicious information can be posted
It is edited by anonymous administrators
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4. Wikipedia lacks authority – there is no peer review
Articles are not reviewed automatically by experts in the field, as happens with other encyclopedias such as Britannica or World Book
The depth of Wikipedia articles is affected by how many devoted contributors there are to the topic.
Eg: the entry on Coronation Street is twice as long as the entry on Tony Blair.
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So why is Wikipedia so popular?
It is free - subscriptions to more scholarly encyclopedias such as Britannica, cost hundreds of pounds per year
It is readily available and easy to search
It’s coverage is huge and growing every day. Over 3 million articles on a broad range of topics (August 2009) as opposed to Britannica’s half a million.It can be updated very quickly, so can react to changes in information
It is the result of a collaborative effort of thousands of people, who bring different levels of expertise and knowledge to the project
Instead of condemning Wikipedia outright, educationalists need to help students develop new media literacies
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Today's digital youth are in the process of creating a new kind of literacy; ... In this new media age, the ability to negotiate and evaluate information online, to recognize manipulation and propaganda and to assimilate ethical values is becoming as basic to education as reading and writing."Jonathan Fanton, president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur
Foundation
New Media Literacies
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F Crawford WHP Federation Libraries Jan 2010
The arguments for and against go on and on.....
So here are some top tips on how to make the most of Wikipedia
Use Wikipedia to give you an
overview of your topic
Give it a brief read until you come to the information you want
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Use Wikipedia as
a gateway to other sources.......
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Use Wikipedia to help you identify keywords for further research
These are often the hypertext links in blue in the main body of the article
They indicate that there is further information available that can be explored
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Note also the numbers in the articles
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These refer to the Notes section at the end of the article
These include links to journal articles, pamphlets and to books which you can borrow from a libraryNB: You can usually cite these as an academic source
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Sometimes there will be a link to Google books where you can read part of the text online and decide whether you want to use more of the whole book
There are little symbols which will indicate this
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PDF file
Google Books
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You will also find the References section towards the end of the article
These are books you can see if you can find in your County Library catalogue or school library (see link at end of presentation)
If they are constantly referred to in the article, they are likely to be key works on the subject
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You can use the Further Reading or External Links at the end of the article in the same way
These should be useful links ...... but always check their authenticity for yourself
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Click on the discussion tab at the top to see if any of the information in this article is
under dispute
Maybe it is....and you need to know it!
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So to summarise....
• Use Wikipedia for an overview
• Use Wikipedia as a gateway
• Use Wikipedia to help you identify keywords
using the NotesReferencesFurther readingExternal links
to direct you to other sources
• Use the Discussion tab to see whether the article is under dispute
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Spiro, Lisa. (2008). Is Wikipedia becoming a respectable academic source?. Available: http://digitalscholarship.wordpress.com/2008/09/01/is-wikipedia-becoming-a-respectable-academic-source/. Last accessed 25/1/2010
ReferencesJenkins, Henry. (2007). What Wikipedia can teach us about the new media literacies (Part One). Available: http://www.henryjenkins.org/2007/06/what_wikipedia_can_teach_us_ab.html. Last accessed 25/1/2010
Further linksGuidelines for using WikipediaLiu, Alan. (2007). Student Wikipedia Use Policy. Available:http://www.english.ucsb.edu/faculty/ayliu/courses/wikipedia-policy.html. Last accessed 29/1/2010
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ANON. (2010). Using Wikipedia. Available:http://www.findingdulcinea.com/guides/Technology/Wikipedia.pg_01.html#01. Last accessed 25/1/2010
Notts County Library catalogue
Neil’s toolbox Harvard Reference Generator - I used this to create my references for this presentation
Project New Media Literacies (2008).The new media literacies. Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEHcGAsnBZE. Last accessed 29/1/2010