On Sun, 2009-12-06 at 17:13 +0000, Thomas Dalton wrote:
2009/12/6 Brian McNeil brian.mcneil@wikinewsie.org:
Mmmm? Do you make a habit of telling children aged eleven they can look things up on a website with pictures of an adult performing autofellatio?
Personally, I am very sceptical that such things are harmful to children. However, that is irrelevant. The question was about helping students use Wikipedia more effectively by correctly determining the reliability of different claims. Wikipedia for Schools doesn't help with that so it not a helpful suggestion.
I agree with you about being sceptical of such "moral outrage". When I was that age it was the prissy parents whinging about kids looking up "penis" in the dictionary. ;-)
However, kids that age are smart enough to work from Wikipedia for schools (vetted and dumbed down) to comparing with Wikipedia and seeing why certain information is taken out or considered dubious.
Perhaps one of the most important "sum of all knowledge" aspects Wikipedia can offer is an ability to be appropriately sceptical. A good transition through the education system does that; you start with the basics and work up to real research work where you need to recognise a significant or credible report.