On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 10:14 PM, doc doc.wikipedia@ntlworld.com wrote:
The idea of wikipedia anywhere near a school curriculum, except perhaps in a brief IT lesson, horrifies me. The idea of children using wikipedia to challenge the "official truth" of a qualified teacher with "but sir, it says on wikipedia", is laughable.
I think that most of this discussion has missed the point that the English Ofsted chap in no way suggested that Wikipedia should be used as a teaching supplement at all, or that he had anything to do with informing people about history or politics. Rather he seems to suggest that certain internet skills "blogging, podcasts, Wikipedia and Twitter" should be taught in schools, and children should be familiar with how to access their information. So, we no more get Wikipedia as a source of knowledge than Twitter, and your local blog.
The reaction "this shows the WMF should go into schools" is as ridiculous a conclusion as it is a typical wikicentric "OMG they want us, they really do - we always said they would".
As ever, I'm a little more optimistic than you, Scott. I think there is a potential use for members of the Wikipedia community to go into schools and explain how Wikipedia should be used because
1. children /will/ encounter Wikipedia; 2. they need to know how it can be helpful and how it can be harmful; and 3. teachers are unlikely to be able to impart this knowledge.
You want to train wikipedians in a primary school? Turn off the PCs and give them grammar and dictation.
And Latin.