Andy Carvin proposes Turning Wikipedia into an Asset for Schools.
The simple idea: assign students a Wikipedia page to edit. They do their research and either verify the accuracy of the current page or make revisions, posting their concerns and citing their sources on the discussion page for the entry.
Students get experience researching and editing online, get to feel the power of distributed authority, and refine Wikipedia in the process. Everybody wins.
How many educators who think Wikipedia is an unreliable source of information will take up this challenge?
[UPDATE: Tom Hoffman at Ed-Tech Insider has posted a critique of Andy’s idea, and there’s a bit of back-and-forth in the comments that’s worth reading.]
[tags]wikipedia, education[/tags]
Ryan Sholin 