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Old 02-13-2007, 03:36 PM   #1
busterb
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Wikipedia

College: Wikipedia Not Source for Papers

Feb 13, 8:21 AM (ET)


MIDDLEBURY, Vt. (AP) - Middlebury College history students are no longer allowed to use Wikipedia in preparing class papers.

The school's history department recently adopted a policy that says it's OK to consult the popular online encyclopedia, but that it can't be cited as an authoritative source by students.

The policy says, in part, "Wikipedia is not an acceptable citation, even though it may lead one to a citable source."

History professor Neil Waters says Wikipedia is an ideal place to start research but an unacceptable way to end it.

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Old 02-13-2007, 03:39 PM   #2
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Fair enough.
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Old 02-13-2007, 04:09 PM   #3
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#1:

God forbid one has to follow a few links in order to flesh out a premise.

#2:

Quote:
Middlebury College history students are no longer allowed to use Wikipedia in preparing class papers.
I love these articles that start off with a bang, and then proceed to completely contradict themselves.

#3:

This really indicates a problem with the standard information model, doesn't it? We're stuck on training students how to do something that they don't really need to know how to do anymore, IE training chefs how to make fire by rubbing two sticks together, when we know that ovens exist.
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Old 02-13-2007, 04:19 PM   #4
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Ooo oooh do we need a Cellar.org entry for Wikipedia?
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Old 02-13-2007, 04:20 PM   #5
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The stronger student will edit the Wikipedia entry to correct it or fill out sections that need more information.

The perfect student will create a definitive entry about a subject that previously did not exist or was only a leaf node.
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Old 02-13-2007, 04:23 PM   #6
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Sadly cellar.org does not meet Wikipedia's standards as a notable topic. If we started a page for it, other people would delete it.
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Old 02-13-2007, 04:25 PM   #7
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Quote:
This really indicates a problem with the standard information model, doesn't it? We're stuck on training students how to do something that they don't really need to know how to do anymore,
How so? What is it that we are teaching students to do, that they no longer need to do?
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Old 02-13-2007, 04:32 PM   #8
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First, may I just say that Wikipedia rocks! I access it pretty much daily.

Second, I agree in general with the prohibition for citing them for college papers. Encylopedias are meant to be background research--a starting point. College students should be citing primary sources or scholarly secondary sources. Otherwise it's the equivalent of that paper on panda bears you did in fourth grade where you basically copied the World Book entry.

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Originally Posted by Flint View Post
#This really indicates a problem with the standard information model, doesn't it? We're stuck on training students how to do something that they don't really need to know how to do anymore, IE training chefs how to make fire by rubbing two sticks together, when we know that ovens exist.
Ha! you think that's bad--try teaching (or learning) legal research the Oldskool way--with books. It's hard, because almost no one does it that way anymore, BUT--it is necessary to learn for a variety of reasons.
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Old 02-13-2007, 04:33 PM   #9
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Exactly. It's a useful skill to learn.
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Old 02-13-2007, 04:45 PM   #10
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Er, I'm not sure what you are saying here, DanaC, since you seem to be making contradictory statements, but I'll expand. (puts down Krispy Kreme some evil soul brought to work). Now I'll expound:

1) College students (at least in the liberal disciplines) should be learning a couple of broad categories of learning: critical analysis and how to find information, i.e., research. Both of these skills are combined when doing a research paper and translate well into the workplace. Looking up an encylopedia article (print or online) and copying it does not serve either of these goals fully.

2) Legal research is especially difficult, as anyone who has tried to learn it discovers. It's mostly done online now, because the old, book-based way is EXTREMELY cumbersome. As a paralegal teacher, I have been in the unenviable position of --trying to teach it; and --justifying why.

The main reasons why a prospective law student needs to do it the old way are:
--you might get hired by a firm that only does it on paper
--your bosses likely learned the old way and will SCOFF at your ignorance
--not everything is online, even now, and likely never will be
--it's part of the basics of the profession; it's like wax on/wax off--you have to soak up the basic moves before you can kick ass
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Old 02-13-2007, 05:44 PM   #11
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Would this be a good time to mention that I have never used Wikipedia? Never even went to the site.
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Old 02-13-2007, 05:53 PM   #12
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Well, I have a very curious mind.

To the OP: you posted this without a comment, so I'm not sure what you think about this.
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Old 02-13-2007, 05:58 PM   #13
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Cloud, i wasn't being contradictory. I initially expressed the view that it was fair enough that the university no longer accepted wiki as a citable source.....then in response to Flint's post, I asked in what way teaching students to do non web based research was equivalent to teaching chefs to light a fire with sticks?

You then posted about how learning to research 'the old fashioned way' was useful. I agreed with you. I see no problem with students not being allowed to cite wikipedia as an academic source in an academic paper.

Using it as a start point or revision tool is fine, but any student with serious academic intentions needs to be able to conduct research using traditional methods (including web based sources which have been subject to proper academic peer review, such as electronic journal holdings like jstor).

At no point in this thread have I suggested that students don't need to conduct 'proper' research. As a student of history and aspiring academic I am more than familiar with traditional research methods, and frankly if I or my fellow students were to cite wikepedia as a source we'd be pretty much laughed off campus.

Last edited by DanaC; 02-13-2007 at 06:04 PM.
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Old 02-13-2007, 06:03 PM   #14
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okie dokie, thanks for clarifying that.
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Old 02-13-2007, 06:25 PM   #15
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As a recent university student, I can say there's no way I'd even consider citing wiki as a source. The reason for that is that the articles on that site don't distinguish whether they're actually published articles or not, therefore, if they have not been published, they are not a reputable source. They have not been peer reviewed and often contain slanted or flat out untrue statements.

I don't think anyone should use wiki as a reference cited on a paper, however, as has been mentioned, it's sometimes a good place to look for information in order to start to formulate an argument.
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