Thursday, October 5th, 2006, 2:25 am
Wikipedia and Research Papers
IKIS and research are a funny dou. As I recently pointed out, Wikis are an excellent tools for improving researched-on, peer-reviewed content. On the other hand, as this new article with some general background and criticism suggests, a Wiki is susceptible to abuse if it’s too open to a wide audience.
Brent Freccia, a social studies teacher at Newark High School in Delaware and a self-proclaimed “avid wiki-person,” created an entry for his school on Wikipedia, the oft-visited online encyclopedia and go-to source for students writing research papers.
An example where things can go terribly wrong:
When Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected as pope last year, some Internet users who logged onto Wikipedia to see what he looked like found a rather different image: that of the evil emperor from “Star Wars.”