1. WIKIPEDIA AS A CRITICAL THINKING
TOOL
K Vandertulip
CETL Summer Workshop
May 20, 2014
2. A LITTLE ABOUT WIKIPEDIA FIRST
6th most visited page in US
After Google, Facebook, Youtube, Yahoo, and Amazon
(Alexa)
A 2009 study of 1,900 physicians found that 50%
used Wikipedia to answer health questions, twice
the percentage of the year before (Kupferberg,
2011)
3. Jimmy Wales (cofounder of Wikipedia):
“I get at least one email a week from a college
student who says he got an F citing Wikipedia. I
write back saying, "For God's sake, you're in
college. Why are you citing an encyclopedia?" We
tell people to be aware of what it is. It's pretty good
but any particular page could have been edited five
minutes ago, incorporating a new error. It's
generally ‘good enough.’”
As quoted in David Weinberger’s Joho the Blog, Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales, speaking as a panelist
(http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/mtarchive/annenberg_hyperlinking_in_web_1.html)
4. “…the goal of Wikipedia isn't to contain all human
knowledge—it's to provide a starting point for
readers, to get them interested enough in the topic
that they'll consider reading the cited sources as
well. They can't go get more information if you don't
tell them where they can do so.” (Wikipedia)
5. BASIC PAGE LAYOUT
Lead Section
Infobox
Headings
Table of Contents
Links
Citations
Category Information
Talk
Edit Information Edit Summary, authors, etc
7. Evaluating sources
BS checking/Fact checking
Point of View (ideally, Neutral POV)
Establishing missing information
8. A NOT-SO-ROBUST PAGE
Adding a citation when [citation needed] appears
Adding missing information
Adding a new Wikipedia page
Monitoring a page (watchlist)
9. SKILLS PRACTICED
Technical thinking—computer logic and basic
coding
Writing clearly for a general audience
Research
Knowing when and why to cite
Peer review
10. Contributed to the accumulated knowledge about a
topic, expanding upon what was known with new
information
Scholarship
