The Wikipedia Controversy
Dec 7th, 2007
There's been a lot of controversy lately about whether or not students should be allowed to use Wikipedia. The BBC reports that Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales now advocates for students to use the site:
"As long as an article included accurate citations, he said he had "no problem" with it being used as a reference for younger students, although academics would "probably be better off doing their own research"."You can ban kids from listening to rock 'n' roll music, but they're going to anyway," he added. "It's the same with information, and it's a bad educator that bans their students from reading Wikipedia."
I think the issue is a lot simpler than many are making it out to be. Obviously Wikipedia is a great source of information. Obviously you will come across inaccurate information (due to the site's open editing policy, anyone can change content). College students should never use Wikipedia as a cited source. Instead, they should be taught how to use Wikipedia as a tool to find more reliable primary source material.
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