Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a great tool to generate quick information about a topic. There are numerous pages of information that is often very helpful and insightful, however, the validity of the information is definitely something that needs to taken into account when using information from Wikipedia. This is due to the fact that anyone that is a user of the site is able to add or update information, this means that information may not necessarily be true or may contain bias views.

I conducted a search of recycling which resulted in 32 pieces of information, however, not all of this information was relevant and of good use. The first piece of information, though, did produce very relevant, correct and usable information. As i have previously studied this topic with one of my host classes I was able to determine that most of the information was valid and could be trusted in using. The problem however with this, is that while students are conducting searches using Wikipedia they may come across and use information that is not true and is not relevant to the topic. It is for this reason most universities and schools do not allow the use of Wikipedia in academic assessment material. I do however believe that Wikipedia is a great tool for those that are searching for information for personal use only, not the for the use of academic assessment, as this tool does often have a great source of information that would otherwise be difficult to find. This is fundamentally the reason behind most people using this site to perform searches, because it does provide one with a great deal of information, quickly- and you do not need to sift through pages to find it. Through my search i also found that pieces of information listed below were pages thought to be relevant to the search i conducted. This included the history of recycling, legislation, supply, process, collection, sorting, cost benefit-analysis, positive and negative points, common recyclables and other techniques, just to name a few.

Wikipedia, would be an excellent tool to use in order to teach students to unpick information and determine what is relevant, what is seems valid and what is of good use to them. This would definitely benefit students in the way of finding information for tasks and determining what information they need to complete the task. These skills are used as a part of university study as well as many professions in the real-world, so not only would this type of teaching become authentic and beneficial to students in their future learning but allow for them to see relevance to their learning and practices in the real-world. Kearsley and Shneiderman (1999) explain that this connection to real-life practices and the integration of ICT's is significant in creating engagement within students toward classroom tasks. Prensky (2005) provides further reasoning to this as he believes that students of the 21st century need to use technology in classroom experiences in order to be prepared for the technology rich society of the future. Furthermore, the use of Wikipedia can be seen to be also beneficial to learning Managers in their attempt to gather information to support their teachings.

References

Kearsley, G., & Shneiderman, B. (1999). Engagement Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning. Retrieved from CQUniversity,
FAHE11001 Managing E-Learning, http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. On the Horizon. MCB University Press, Vol. 9 No. 5, October 2001.