Wikipedia

Since Wikipedia can have anyone edit the information, I would never trust all the information to be completely true. I doubt that it would ever be 100% accurate, but it still gives you plenty of good information to compare with other sources and use them all to make your own educated mind up. I feel that Virgil Griffith has made a great step in helping be more accurate. I agree with the speakers on the Wikipedia Scanner podcast that it might cut down on all the changes made to . But as they said, they can still alter the information from another computer anonymously. I would still use Wikipedia, but cautiously and I would use other sources as well.

I would allow students to use Wikipedia for finding information about a subject where they had to gather their own information from several sites and use their educated judgement for that given assignment. The sites would need to be the same as Wikipedia for it to be reliable. The students would be able to use it for opinionated papers, like "Who is the best President?"

I would not allow them to use it for a research paper about factual events or people. The site does not have way of keeping information updated and factual at all times, therefore it wouldn't be a good site for a paper about Parkinson's Disease or Cher. Since anyone anywhere can add to the site, I wouldn't trust students to get accurate information.

I do think it is a good idea to use hyperlinks for vocabulary that students may not know. It is a quick resource for them, and they are having to take the time to learn new words on their own. Not everything has to be laid out in such detail. It teaches them to be self sufficient learners.