What Did Wikipedia Teach Me?

1. Should Wikipedia be used as a scholarly source? What are the strengths and weaknesses of this source?

Wikipedia is one of the most controversial information sources on the web today. It serves as a socially edited database source for information on virtually any topic. Wikipedia is gaining an increasingly bad reputation in schools all over the world. Teachers will argue that Wikipedia is not a reliable source with credibility to be cited in a formal essay or term paper. Teachers believe that due to the multitude of anonymous updates, there is not enough reliable information to base ideas upon. Even if Wikipedia can detect obvious errors there is no way that it can monitor every single error. Wikipedia is easy to use and therefore any normal person can make anonymous edits. Many college professors believe that Wikipedia should not be used as a scholarly source due to the fact that students have been taught extensive research skills up to that point and should use them to their advantage. Students should have the ability, by the time they reach university, to research more reliably published information and develop a coherent argument. Younger children, however, may need extra encouragement to develop their arguments; but not necessarily their researching skills. The fact that articles on Wikipedia are not written in a complicated manner certainly may encourage its use among younger children. In my opinion Wikipedia should be used as a learning tool and not a research tool.

2. What so these strengths and weaknesses tell us about the impact and potential effects of technology on American culture?

Wikipedia to me is the future that anyone can edit. It's funny how we all seem to "knock it" yet still seem to flock to the website daily.The impact of technological change on culture, learning, and morality has long been the subject of intense debate, and every technological revolution brings out a fresh crop of both pessimists and pollyannas. Embracing new technology people fear, will result in the overthrow of traditions, beliefs, values, institutions, business models, and much else they hold sacred. Our current Information Revolution has had its share of techno-pessimists and techno-optimists. Indeed, before most of us had even heard of the Internet, people were already fighting about it, or at least debating what the rise of the Information Age meant for our culture, society, and economy. The world we occupy today is a world of unprecedented media abundance and unlimited communications and connectivity opportunities. I believe that the Internet and digital technologies are reshaping our culture, economy, and society in most ways for the better, but not without some serious aversion along the way. 

3. What did you learn? What will you take away from this project?

I've enjoyed working on this project. I learned that Wikipedia is an amazing example of intelligence at work, but I also understand it is not without flaws and limitations. I believe Wikipedia is a wonderful complement, but not a complete substitute, for other media and information sources and inputs.