On Thu, 2010-01-07 at 01:21 +0000, Thomas Dalton wrote:
2010/1/7 Bod Notbod <bodnotbod(a)gmail.com>om>:
On Wed, Jan 6, 2010 at 7:50 PM, Thomas Dalton
<thomas.dalton(a)gmail.com> wrote:
■ you can find a pre-checked Wikipedia
collection
of 5,500 articles targeted around the national
curriculum at
http://schools-wikipedia.org.
Wow! I've been volunteering on Wikipedia since 2004, during some
periods very heavily, and I've never even heard of that!
I can't believe it has escaped my attention!
You should have been at the last Wikimedia UK AGM - one of the people
responsible for Wikipedia for Schools gave a very interesting talk
about it.
To see Wikipedia for Schools mentioned by the UK Government as a
"recommended" educational resource is a delight to me. I interviewed a
couple of the people involved when the 08/09 version came out:
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/2008-09_Wikipedia_for_Schools_goes_online
As is highlighted in the article, through working with wiki volunteers
the charity was able to fill out key items on the national curriculum.
The whole thing, and the way it is moving, gives me hope that future
generations will be taught to be critical of sources that present
themselves as an authority.
There is always the suspicion that those, such as the Telegraph, who
might fear this change to a more critically thinking populace will
dismiss and condemn it. Then again, I, personally, highly value critical
thinking and a more long-term approach to issues and problems. I see the
government accepting people will use Wikipedia, and cautioning them on
how to judge an article, as a highly significant step forward in a
process leading to a more informed and critical electorate.
--
Brian McNeil <brian.mcneil(a)wikinewsie.org>
Wikinewsie.org