Have you ever had to defend Wikipedia to a professor (or a parent or friend)? This collection of published studies and reports may help make the case for a more enlightened (but still critical) use of the worldâs most popular reference website. Wikipedia is a uniquely comprehensive, freely accessible, regularly reliable, well-referenced starting point for further researchâââso use it wisely.
Away from stigma
The first step is admitting that everyone, from students to doctors, uses Wikipedia. We need to change the conversation from one of abstinence to intelligent information consumption.
âUsing Wikipedia to Teach Information Literacyâ, College and Undergraduate Libraries
âWikipedia is increasingly becoming the go-to reference resource for the newest generation of studentsâŠLibrarians and faculty should help remove the stigma associated with Wikipedia by embracing this Website and its imperfections as a way to make information literacy instruction valuable for the twenty-first-century student.â
âWikipedia and the University, a case studyâ, Teaching in Higher Education
âOur conclusion is that whilst Wikipedia is now unofficially integrated into universities, it is not âtheâ information resource as feared by many and that an enlightened minority of academics have attempted to assimilate it into their teaching.â
âFaculty Perception of Wikipedia in the California State University Systemâ, New Library World
âOverall, faculty perceptions of Wikipedia have shifted in Wikipediaâs favor and that some faculty members create interesting and unique assignments that involve Wikipedia or Wikipedia-like work.â
âIn Defense of Wikipediaâ, 100 Law Library Journal
âResearch instructors should teach students to use Wikipedia properly, rather than trying to convince them not to use itâŠWikipedia can be used to help teach the importance of evaluating sources.â
âHow and why do college students use Wikipedia?â, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
âThis study supports the knowledge value of Wikipedia, despite studentsâ cautious attitudes toward Wikipedia. The study suggests that educators and librarians need to provide better guidelines for using Wikipedia, rather than prohibiting Wikipedia use altogether.â
âEmploying Wikipedia for good not evil: innovative approaches to collaborative writing assessmentâ, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education
âUnwarranted stigma is attached to the use of Wikipedia in higher education due to fears that students will not pursue rigorous research practices because of the easy access to information that Wikipedia facilitates.â
Towards integration
Wikipedia is more than just a place to consume: itâs a forum for practicing vital skills of information literacy and digital citizenship. Wikipedia and its volunteers practice rigorous research, and learning how to edit can improve those skills.
âWikipedia: When College Students Have an Audience, Does Their Writing Improve?â, EdTech Magazine
âWhen asked to contribute to a wikiâââa space thatâs highly public and where the audience can respond by deleting or changing your wordsâââcollege students snapped to attention, carefully checking sources and including more of them to back up their work⊠their audienceâââthe Wikipedia communityâââwas quite gimlet-eyed and criticalâŠby teaching them to use Wikipedia, they became much better users of the tool. Instead of blindly consuming the content, they understand where the research comes from and how it gets there. In the past, weâve told them not to use Wikipedia. Thatâs insane. Rather than saying, âIt doesnât have a place in the academy,â letâs explain to students how it can be used as a tertiary resource. Itâs not the end-all and be-all of research, but itâs incredibly useful.â
âThe new information literate: Open collaboration and information production in schoolsâ , International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning
âWriting for a non-teacher audience is motivating.. creating a public information resource is associated with a sense of responsibility that promotes critical engagement with information⊠This sense of responsibility provides an ideal context for practicing information literacy skills like identifying information needs, searching for, and assessing information sourcesâŠproducing information for others in online environments can give young people a starting point for reflecting on where information comes from; such experiencesâŠrequire students to reflect on the nature of information productionâŠIf we want to develop a more local, shared sense of responsibility, continuing efforts to incorporate public information production in classrooms should include opportunities for students to support and challenge one another in justifying and critiquing claims, as is done by co-authors on Wikipedia.â
âWikipedia: The âIntellectual Makerspaceâ of Librariesâ, Programming Librarian
âWe need to see Wikipedia as a makerspace in its own rightâŠInstead of creating a physical item, we have an intellectual makerspace. We need to encourage the activity by teaching editors the value of some information sources over others, how to write for an encyclopedia and how to deal with conflict in virtual environments.â
To improve society
Wikipediaâs mission is to share the sum of all human knowledge. Sometimes this resolves trivia and bar bets, and sometimes it results in new inventions or medical cures. The potential is unlimited.
âAmplifying the Impact of Open Access: Wikipedia and the Diffusion of Scienceâ, arXiv.org
âIn most of the worldâs Wikipedias, a journalâs high status (impact factor) and accessibility (open access policy) both greatly increase the probability of referencingâŠthe chief effect of open access policies may be to significantly amplify the diffusion of science, through an intermediary like Wikipedia, to a broad public audience.â
âScience is Shaped by Wikipedia: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trialâ, SSRN
âAs the largest encyclopedia in the world, it is not surprising that Wikipedia reflects the state of scientific knowledge. However, Wikipedia is also one of the most accessed websites in the world, including by scientists, which suggests that it also has the potential to shape science. Incorporating ideas into a Wikipedia article leads to those ideas being used more in the scientific literature. We find that fully a third of the correlational relationship is causal, implying that Wikipedia has a strong effect in shaping science.â
For a full review of the new role Wikipedia can play in education, see our Guide for Research Libraries. For a digestible overview of how to use Wikipedia for regular research, check out the Research Help Guide.
Jake Orlowitz, Wikimedian
This post was originally published on Medium, and its text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.. While Jake works with us over here at the Wikimedia Foundation, this was written in an entirely volunteer capacity. The views and opinions expressed are those of the author alone.
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