I would suggest replacing:
Wikipedia contains sexually explicit, violent language and is subject to vandalism Therefore – not child friendly
With something more reassuring, remember most of your audience will have already looked at Wikipedia, some will even have edited it; but they may not have done so for some time. If so they may have perceptions of vandalism and article quality that are ancient in Wiki time, and this is your opportunity to persuade them to go back and see how much its changed.
I would suggest that early on you ask your audience how many have read Wikipedia articles, did they spot errors? Did they fix those errors? Then say "We have hundreds of thousands of people worldwide who've made the changes that make wikipedia what it is today.
Similarly with vandalism - there we do have an amazing story in terms of how quickly vandalism now gets fixed.
Also worth asking how many have tried Wiktionary and commons.
And talk up the advantages of Wikipedia over offline encyclopaedias - if something fits into several categories it can be given several categories unlike paper classification systems where each library book has to be fitted in one classification. Talk about hyperlinks, ask your audience if they've clicked on a link in a Wikipedia article, and give them an example - point out that when you read about Steel you can click on [[Bessemer Process] and from there you can go to [[Limestone]] without the hassle of looking at three different volumes in a dead tree pedia.
WereSpielChequers --- On Sun, 19/7/09, Joe Anderson computerjoe@gmail.com wrote:
From: Joe Anderson computerjoe@gmail.com Subject: Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Presentation - Wikipedia in Schools To: wikimediauk-l@lists.wikimedia.org Date: Sunday, 19 July, 2009, 10:39 PM On 2009-07-19 18:33:41 +0100, Andrew Turvey andrewrturvey@googlemail.com said:
All comments gratefully received!
Regards,
Andrew
<html><head><style type='text/css'>p
{ margin: 0;
}</style></head><body><div
style='font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;
color: #000000'>All comments gratefully
received!<br><br>Regards,<br><br>Andrew<br></div></body></html>
This message has one or more attachments. Select "Save
Attachments"
from the File menu to save.
I show a list of sources at the bottom of an article and the inline citations to demonstrate its transparency.
I would also talk much more about Commons. Free images are not only useful for pupils, but can be used in school documents as stock images etc.
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
wikimediauk-l@lists.wikimedia.org