ITC: 85 – Why and How You Should Use Wikipedia in the Classroom

Admit it, you are a closet Wikipedia user. You use it for your personal informal research projects but you won’t let your students use it. Time to weave Wikipedia in your classroom.

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I believe that we can all safely agree that Wikipedia should not be used as a primary source in a formal journal article. However, as a learning and teaching tool, we should not discount it. Research has shown that Wikipedia is as accurate as common encyclopedias. It provides a solid jumping-off point for most research quests. It also ranks high in searches with most search engines.

We need to take time to show students how to use it because most students will leave academia and the library article databases. We need to teach students how to use tools like Wikipedia to support their everyday tasks.

You may say that Wikipedia is not always accurate. Well, you and your students can make the corrections. And you should.

This week, we are going to take a closer look at Wikipedia as a teaching and learning tool. I think you will be surprised at what I have pulled together for you.

Additional Reading

• Transcript ITC: 3 – Using Open Educational Resources in the Classroom
• Wikipedia
• “Is Wikipedia a reliable source?”
• The Teacher’s Guide To Wikipedia In The Classroom
• Wikipedia: School and university projects
• Wikipedia: Student assignments
• WikiEdu Training Libraries
• Instructor Orientation Modules
• Busting Up the Monopoly on Knowledge Production
• Teaching Wikipedia without Apologies (2012 revision)
• Education/Reasons to use Wikipedia
• For Instructors
• View of Wikis and Wikipedia as a teaching tool: Five years later
• How Teachers Can Use Wikipedia in the Classroom
• Education/Syllabi
• Wikipedia Projects for Learning
• Teaching with Wikipedia
• Wikipedia and Open Source Writing
• Teach with Wikipedia
• Using Wikipedia in the college composition classroom
• Using Wikipedia as a Teaching Tool: Tips & Best Practices from a Wiki Expert
• Wikipedia: School and university projects/Piotrus course intro boilerplate
• The Dos and Don’ts of Wikipedia Editing in the Undergraduate Psychology Classroom

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