Yesterday while editing a Wikipedia article and babysitting my nieces, they came up to see what I was doing. They both were impressed that I was editing an article (theyr'e 10 and 12, and highly web supervised), and wanted to see how it worked, and wanted to know how I knew what to write. The older girl told me that they get to use Wikipedia at school but if they "vandal" it they'll get in trouble.
KP
On 5/30/07, K P kpbotany@gmail.com wrote:
Yesterday while editing a Wikipedia article and babysitting my nieces, they came up to see what I was doing. They both were impressed that I was editing an article (theyr'e 10 and 12, and highly web supervised), and wanted to see how it worked, and wanted to know how I knew what to write. The older girl told me that they get to use Wikipedia at school but if they "vandal" it they'll get in trouble.
how cute!
I wonder how the school would be alerted to them "Vandal"ling it though...
On 5/30/07, Angela Anuszewski angela.anuszewski@gmail.com wrote:
On 5/30/07, K P kpbotany@gmail.com wrote:
Yesterday while editing a Wikipedia article and babysitting my nieces,
they
came up to see what I was doing. They both were impressed that I was editing an article (theyr'e 10 and 12, and highly web supervised), and wanted to see how it worked, and wanted to know how I knew what to
write.
The older girl told me that they get to use Wikipedia at school but if
they
"vandal" it they'll get in trouble.
how cute!
I wonder how the school would be alerted to them "Vandal"ling it though...
I took a community education course in the local high school's computer lab a couple of years ago and you could search back through all the edits made on the computer and who was logged onto it--probably by class time. I found this out after crashing a program one week, without my knowing it, and having it pointed out to me that I was the guilty part the following week. I doubt it is that difficult.
KP
K P wrote:
Yesterday while editing a Wikipedia article and babysitting my nieces, they came up to see what I was doing. They both were impressed that I was editing an article (theyr'e 10 and 12, and highly web supervised), and wanted to see how it worked, and wanted to know how I knew what to write. The older girl told me that they get to use Wikipedia at school but if they "vandal" it they'll get in trouble.
The school deserves credit for allowing the kids to use Wikipedia. I hope the message gets back to them.
Ec
On 5/31/07, Ray Saintonge saintonge@telus.net wrote:
The school deserves credit for allowing the kids to use Wikipedia. I hope the message gets back to them.
Very true. Some school campus networks are set up not to allow students to *read* Wikipedia (much less edit it!).
—C.W.
On 6/1/07, Ray Saintonge saintonge@telus.net wrote:
The school deserves credit for allowing the kids to use Wikipedia. I hope the message gets back to them.
A friend of mine's 13 year old sister uses it so frequently, I don't think she even bothers using any other sources for the myriad of pointless "research projects" she's required to write. I've explained to her the dangers of taking Wikipedia at face value, and the sheer lunacy of attempting to plagiarise it. But mostly I mock her laziness - she's mature enough to know better.
I have to say though, I was a little bit touched when she plagiarised some text I wrote at [[Paris]]. An extremely indirect, 3rd-millennium way of doing someone else's homework for them. If you actually think about the technology that was required for that to happen, well, it's rather mindblowing really.
Steve
On 5/31/07, Steve Bennett stevagewp@gmail.com wrote:
On 6/1/07, Ray Saintonge saintonge@telus.net wrote:
The school deserves credit for allowing the kids to use Wikipedia. I hope the message gets back to them.
A friend of mine's 13 year old sister uses it so frequently, I don't think she even bothers using any other sources for the myriad of pointless "research projects" she's required to write. I've explained to her the dangers of taking Wikipedia at face value, and the sheer lunacy of attempting to plagiarise it. But mostly I mock her laziness
- she's mature enough to know better.
I have to say though, I was a little bit touched when she plagiarised some text I wrote at [[Paris]]. An extremely indirect, 3rd-millennium way of doing someone else's homework for them. If you actually think about the technology that was required for that to happen, well, it's rather mindblowing really.
Steve
Yeah, the technology is mind-blowing, but still, the plagiarism is bothersome.
When we were growing up and writing research papers we had to read a book on the subject and orally summarize what we'd read before we could begin writing or doing more research. I realize now this was partly my parents' way of preventing plagiarism, but it certainly showed me the limits of the encyclopedia articles I read. My nieces are required to do pretty much the same thing, though less formally (I was home-schooled, they go to public schools). They read a book on the subject in addition to getting information off the web, but they are always required to read a book on the subject and discuss what they read with other family members.
KP