Teach, Not Block Wikipedia | The Village Green

Teach, Not Block Wikipedia March 6, 2008

Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos.
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Will Richardson makes a great point about making use of the largest collection of information on the Internet, also known as Wikipedia. To say this as a positive expression, he calls us as teachers to:

(seize) an opportunity to model for them the power of participation, to help them understand the importance of editing, and to give them a real sense of how the collaborative world works by involving them in the negotiation of the “truth” that those articles represent

Education seems to have a love/hate relationship with Wikipedia. On one hand, we decry the lack of access to information available in our classrooms and could easily benefit from a free encyclopedia with topics not found in traditional print resources. On the other hand we are suspicious of a resource that functions best with collaboration and participation on the part of visitors while bemoaning the lack of a critical approach our students bring to the resources we do have.

http://weblogg-ed.com/2008/yet-another-reason-we-should-be-teaching-not-blocking-wikipedia/

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