The SurRural Librarian

My Junior High students are writing a Wikipedia entry on our school. It’s a great way to get them involved with the content creation side of things, good editing practice and fun.*

There are so many good ways to use Wikipedia and to teach it. It’s crucial to address it early and often. Wikipedia is often the first entry in any Google or Ask search, and people often use it without knowing what wiki is.

I hear adults say many silly things about Wikipedia. I hope the frenzy dies down soon, but in the meantime I need to get this off my chest. Here are a few things I’d like adults to remember when they talk about Wikipedia with students.

Wikipedia is a wiki, not the other way around. The word wiki isn’t synonymous with Wikipedia. That’s like saying all cheese is wiz.

Wikipedia is not out to get you. It’s a huge effort and there are many good-intentioned people working to make it a very informative site. It’s just a wiki, not a plot to disseminate inaccuracies.

Please do not intentionally add erroneous information to Wikipedia to make a point. This is vandalism. It’s not very good modeling.

If you find erroneous information in Wikipedia, change it!

Of course it shouldn’t be your only source of information. And of course it shouldn’t be in a bibliography. Not only is it written by anonymous folks on the internets, it’s an encyclopedia. Last time I checked, an encyclopedia wasn’t a valid bibliographic entry.

Everyone should read at least these two pages before using or teaching Wikipedia:

Ten Things You Might Not Know About Wikipedia

Researching With Wikipedia

And if you take the time to teach Wikipedia use to your students (and I hope you do), I recommend sharing this classic video clip:

Stephen Colbert on Wikiality
(I embed the video in my site to avoid the distracting adds & links. I also skip the first minute to avoid the silly drug reference. It’s worth it, a brilliant piece of comedy.)

*If you’re curious, here’s how we’ve structured the Wikipedia project. Everyone is responsible for one section, then we’ll be swapping sections to go through an editing process. We’re using Google Docs to co-write the entry for now, so we don’t have to be “live” with the material until we’re ready. Our principal will also have access to our document to lend a hand with the big picture. So far the toughest part has been keeping the pieces neutral and without personal narrative. Once we post to Wikipedia, it’ll be fun to see other people come in and edit (I’m sure we’ll get some townspeople interested). I wonder if it will be hard for the students to let go.