Who knew that Wikipedia was so extensive and provided such vital resources for anyone interested in participating in knowledge construction?  Truthfully, my knowledge of Wikipedia has been limited to the admonition I, and the library orientation staff at my college, give:  Wikipedia is an okay place to start obtaining background knowledge, but it should never be listed as a source on a final paper.  I do know that as a beacon of all things popular culture, it is the premier encyclopedic reference.  What I didn’t know is almost everything else that the tutorials for educators and students contain.

Wikipedia has many different types of involved participants.  I do not think I can use this with my eighth graders although showing them that the tutorials exist might be intriguing and engaging for some of them.  The novel that many of them read (made into a movie which always spurs them) Paper Towns by John Green creates “Radar,” a character who is actively engaged throughout in content creation on the Omnictionary, modeled on Wikipedia.  For college students, however, the thought of using Wikipedia as a tool for developing audience awareness and expertise in subject matter is a possibility.

Just last week, Faculty Focus discussed the use of Wikipedia with students.  (The article was earlier published in Online Classroom in 2015.)  The article explores some of the possible ways Wikipedia could be used, for example as a course-long project, or as a repository for a syllabus and students’ projects as part of the Wikiversity (examples of projects are provided), or as a way for students to add content to already existing articles.  Furthermore, it discusses the definite benefits of additional academic “eyes” on student work as a source of motivation for revision and the grading scale that could be used, and that the author used, with students.

I have a new, and justified respect for Wikipedia.