An article I recently read talked about Wikipedia and letting students use it as a resource. Some people have very strong opinions about this. So, should Wikipedia be used in the classroom? I think so. Is it the end-all-be-all of resources? No. Does it provide some useful information? Yes. But like all information on the Internet, it should be verified by other sources. Before the Internet was invented, people used multiple resources for information. That is no different from today. Today, we just have a different means of access the information.
I allow students to use Wikipedia as a stepping-stone to other (more reliable) sources only. They cannot use information directly from Wikipedia or cite it as a source. They can only find key terms, names, and dates to then use to search for in a better site. We talk quite a bit about finding a good, quality source. :)
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