My love for wikipedia cannot be written in words, it's unconditional, constant and sometimes inappropriate. The only thing that comes close to my wikipedia love is my love for haggis with HP sauce, mmmm.
Wikipedia has helped solve many a house debate, usually confirming the knowledge I already had! Most recently was the debate regarding the inventor of penicillin, which of course was the esteemed Scottish Nobel prize winner - Flemming. The agruee was soon silenced and his confidence shot with a click of a button. Wikipedia I thankyou for the small moment of glory albeit short lived, as the person in question soon started another painful conversation. Advantage No.2 is the space it allows me to have. In the olden days my shelfs were rammed with hardback books ranging from a-z. This wealth of information can now be found in my laptop - wow! The only thing I miss about the books is not being able to smell them, a strange but surprisingly common fetish!
Oh and wikipedia is free, being Scottish I probably should have that as my number. 1 point! Long live Wikipedia.
Educationally I will obviously have to highlight possible dangers of relying purely on information quoted in wikipedia. This however will not be site specific and I will teach students to always be questioning the reliability of information on the net.
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Oh for those who also love the smell of books, you can buy the aroma in a can! See link below:
ReplyDeletesmellofbooks.com/aromas/new-book-smell
I love the smell of books too...and I don't think a computer or any aroma in a can will EVER replace books for me. But I do love a computer too, especially my beautiful laptop - so much information in one thing, it's unbelieveable really. A bit like magic, though not many people believe in magic!
ReplyDeleteYes, the number one great thing about Wikipedia is that it is free and anyone can access it so long as they have a computer. It is a great way to get a general idea on a topic before doing further research...or in the case of solving an argument, it can be the first and only port of call!
I so agree with you about wikipedia being the one stop shop for trivial, and sometimes not so trivial information. It has solved many an argument. From an educational point of view though it could really only be the starting point from where to find the real information.
ReplyDeleteYeah I agree it is a starting point. But it can give an excellent starting point. For the Integrated learning course my topic to create lessons is Salinity. I had never heard of this before, so guess what i did!
ReplyDeleteYes, looked it up on Wikipedia.