Wiki

While reading the Richardson chapter this week, specifically when he acknowledges concerns about Wikipedia's reliability, I thought about an interview on The Daily I recently watched. Jon Stewart interviewed someone about Wikipedia and asked the guest how quickly inaccurate information was monitored. But, I could not remember who he interviewed- although I assumed it was a co-founder of the site- I wasn't sure (he does interview a lot of journalist and writers). So, I consulted Wikipedia. There is a Wikipedia page that lists all Jon Stewart's interviews. I found the name I needed, Jimmy Wales- Co-Founder Wikipedia. Then I immediately searched Google Videos for the clip.

Without hesitation I instinctively consulted Wikipedia- and that provided me with the necessary information to continue my search. I love to use Wikipedia as a reference starting point. Almost every Wikipedia articles provides hyperlinks to other Wikipedia pages and reference citations. And, the pages are never bias. As Richardson points out the "whole intention is to foster a neutral point of view" (2010, 60). Often times I will use information I found on a Wikipedia entry to continue my search more narrowly [i.e. the Jon Stewart interview. Or sometimes I end up searching for something completely different if I get distracted. Either way- I am using information provided through the collaboration of thousands of people for my benefit. To discover and learn. I am in control.

After searching for The Daily Show clip I reread Jimmy Wales' quote; "'[i]magine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's what we're doing here'" (Richardson, 2010, 55). The "sum of all human knowledge" is a very powerful concept. Every person contributing to Wikis acts "as editor in chief" to a larger audience (Richardson, 2010, 55-6). Collaborative sites, like Wikis, provides students with a sense of empowerment and ownership over their learning experience (Wheeler, 2008). This gives students motivation- the teacher is no longer the authoritative figure in the classroom. Instead, the teacher fosters a learning environment and provides students with the tools to contribute to their own learning. As a future my main concern is about assessment. How do we assess the collaborative learning process? Especially on sites where we expect information to evolve as participation increases. These are questions I will have to tackle more thoroughly if I decide to use Wikipedia in the classroom.

p.s. when i visited jimmy wales blog i learned about a new site: hunch. jimmy refers to the site as web 3.0. although i just started playing around the site this afternoon i am already enjoying it.