WIKIPedia

Wikipedia is a free, Web-based collaborative encyclopedia, currently the largest and most popular general reference work on the Internet (Wikipedia, 2009). Wikipedia has 13 million articles (2.9 million in English) written collaboratively by volunteers around the world, and almost all the articles can be edited by anyone who can access the Wikipedia Web site (Wikipedia). Conversely it has tight set of guidelines and moderators to persist information is accurate and avoid breaches of copyright (CQUniversity, 2009; Wikipedia). The images and knowledge are covered by the creative commons license agreement (CQUniversity).

Wikipedia is a controversial site. I think it is great for background knowledge (which I do) though I do not believe it should be in an academic assignment. Hence I would employ this TECHNOLOGY in my learning environment for students to develop background knowledge because it’s quick, comprehensive, straight-forward knowledge. Also students are able to employ the images from Wikipedia as it covered by the creative commons license (CQUniversity, 2009).

Critics of Wikipedia accuse Wikipedia of its reliability and accuracy; however, false or unverified information though scholarly work suggests that vandalism is generally short-lived (Wikipedia, 2009). One way Wikipedia can be employs in a learning environment for higher-order and creative thinking experience, is authentic writing. Cummings (cited in Interact at the Center, 2009) “believes the major advantage to helping student essay writing with the use of Wikipedia is that students have audiences that are real and can provide plenty of immediate feedback to their writing.” The students then posted their worked to collaborative Wiki and the students wait for their comments, from Wikipedia readers. According to Cummings (Interact at the Center) he “believes students are writing and having more exposure to having to write formally.”