AndrewRT wrote:
I forgot to mention - I was speaking to someone at the
Wikimedia
Seminar last Thursday and they mentioned that their sister is a
teacher (11-16yos) and often has problems with students using
Wikipedia inappropriately (in the sense of repeating things that
aren't true). She said it would be useful if we could put together a,
say, 5 page guide, on the best way to use Wikipedia.
Does anyone know if there is anything similar already out there and
could anyone help out with putting something like this together?
There are actually several issues. Two major ones are covered by "How
Wikipedia Works", which is under the GFDL. Online you can find
http://howwikipediaworks.com/ch04.html: Chapter 4. Understanding and
Evaluating an Article
A number of reviewers singled out this chapter as containing original
material about article evaluation, which is one topic a teacher would be
interested in.
http://howwikipediaworks.com/apb.html : Appendix B. Wikipedia for Teachers
1. Wikipedia as a Classroom Reference Resource
2. Guiding Student Use of Wikipedia
3. Assigning Wikipedia Editing
More conventional things about citation, in particular.
If a school student is misled by Wikipedia, there are of course several
possible causes: Wikipedia is wrong; the student is misreading by being
superficial about what is said, or is summarising inaccurately; or
material is being taken out of context (for example neutrality being
affected by selective quotation).
It should be possible to hit the highlights over five pages. What would
be really valuable would be to have some feedback, to have an idea how
it goes with school students of various age groups (e.g. GCSE, A-level
classes), and what the key points are for them. For 11 to 16, there
should probably be plenty of emphasis on the presence and style of
references, and accuracy in reading what is written; the language used
is usually not pitched to the reading age at the lower end of that age
group.
Charles