On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 10:14 PM, doc <doc.wikipedia(a)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.
--
Sam
PGP public key:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Sam_Korn/public_key