Chapter Four
In chapter four, “Wikis: Easy Collaboration for All”,
Richardson introduces the reader to Wikis.
He defines Wiki as “quick”, “an easy authoring tool”, and “a Web site
where anyone can edit anything anytime they want.” A strength of Wiki is that it allows anyone to go to any page and add, edit, and delete notes, but as Richardson is
quick to point out, there are risks involved when a Web site is open for anyone to have input.
I found the discussion of information reliability to be the
most interesting part of this chapter. I
have long been perplexed by the “Wikipedia” dilemma. I am aware that most of my students turn to
Wikipedia as their primary source for information. I have been in the habit of advising them to
use Wikipedia with caution, suggesting that Wikipedia is a good place to begin,
but warning them to then move on to more reliable sources. The aspect of my
instruction that has left me a little unsettled is that I primarily define a reliable
source as one that has been able to stand up to scrutiny. Richardson’s discussion of the way that
Wikis, particularly Wikipedia, work challenges my skepticism of Wikipedia by pointing
out that there is no other resource available that is so closely monitored and
widely scrutinized. Major news outlets, scholars and successful businesses
already utilize Wikis to both obtain and dispense information. This chapter has inspired me to revisit the
role that Wiki sources should be playing in my classroom.
I agree with your comments on Chapter 4 regarding how the author changed your skeptisism of Wiki's. I was relieved about the information about how often Wikipedia was updaded and the caliber of the folks that seemingly volunteered to do this on a regular basis. But other wiki's....educating the students as to the reliability of the author i.e. their background- sounds like a challenging concept, especially for my middle schoolers. I will have to experience it with them to know exactly how challegeing it will be for them.
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