WIKIPEDIA AS A CRITICAL THINKING TOOLK Vandertulip

CETL Summer Workshop

May 20, 2014

A LITTLE ABOUT WIKIPEDIA FIRST

6th most visited page in US After Google, Facebook, Youtube, Yahoo, and

Amazon (Alexa) A 2009 study of 1,900 physicians found that

50% used Wikipedia to answer health questions, twice the percentage of the year before (Kupferberg, 2011)

Jimmy Wales (cofounder of Wikipedia): “I get at least one email a week from a

college student who says he got an F citing Wikipedia. I write back saying, "For God's sake, you're in college. Why are you citing an encyclopedia?" We tell people to be aware of what it is. It's pretty good but any particular page could have been edited five minutes ago, incorporating a new error. It's generally ‘good enough.’”

As quoted in David Weinberger’s Joho the Blog, Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales, speaking as a panelist (http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/mtarchive/annenberg_hyperlinking_in_web_1.html)

“…the goal of Wikipedia isn't to contain all human knowledge—it's to provide a starting point for readers, to get them interested enough in the topic that they'll consider reading the cited sources as well. They can't go get more information if you don't tell them where they can do so.” (Wikipedia)

BASIC PAGE LAYOUT

Lead Section Infobox Headings Table of Contents Links Citations Category Information Talk Edit Information Edit Summary, authors,

etc

LOOK A LITTLE DEEPER…

Evaluating sources BS checking/Fact checking Point of View (ideally, Neutral POV) Establishing missing information

A NOT-SO-ROBUST PAGE

Adding a citation when [citation needed] appears

Adding missing information Adding a new Wikipedia page Monitoring a page (watchlist)

SKILLS PRACTICED

Technical thinking—computer logic and basic coding

Writing clearly for a general audience Research Knowing when and why to cite Peer review

Contributed to the accumulated knowledge about a topic, expanding upon what was known with new information Scholarship