Wikipedia for students?

(Image: techshout.com)

Seriously, should students use Wikipedia for research?

Wikipedia has been infamous and blamed for student's plagiarism, at least that is what most teachers said and believed when they give students instructions for a writing assignment. However, Wikipedia has grown so big that almost every time you searched something on Google, it will be the first few results that comes with the most thorough and organized information. Many teachers think since almost everyone can modify Wikipedia (despite the fact that there are actually people monitoring and fact-checking modification), they proposed the rule that Wikipedia cannot be used as a reference for a thesis-based term paper or research paper. 

It was interesting to read about Dariusz Jemielniak 's article responding to this practice. I agree with Jemielniak. It is because people can modify information on Wikipedia so they have the opportunity to learn and research further. I think Wikipedia is about bringing in a community altogether and create something that is available to most people who want to learn about a particular subject. Not everyone in the world has resources to support them through education; however, a organized database like Wikipedia allow anyone with Internet to join the conversation and study about almost anything. On top of that, innovation can also be carried through this platform as people from all over the world can exchange ideas and come up with new ideas. My history teacher in high school, although did not support using Wikipedia as the primary source for term papers, he did let us create a blog similar to that of a Wiki page. It was a fun and educational activity because we were able to experience what it is like to put together all the information in an organizational manner, while figuring out and researching what we did not know and might work well with our page.

In conclusion, I think teachers should stop opposing student's use of Wikipedia for research purposes. Instead, incorporating Jemielniak's ideas of Wikipedia assignment and let students further explore the different possibilities out there by modifying and catching errors on different subject matters on the website.

Work Cited:

Jemielniak, Dariusz. "Wikipedia, a Professor's Best Friend." The Chronicle of Higher Education. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 13 Oct. 2014. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.