Wikipedia

Questions for Activity #1:

a. What is Wikipedia? -- a multilingual, Web-based encyclopedia, that is run by a nonprofit organization
b. How would you answer the question posed in this piece “How reliable can a source be when anyone can edit it?”? --vandalism and errors can be taken out faster than you think because there is constant watch on it
c. Who do the creators of Wikipedia place their trust in when it comes to weeding out misinformation? -- many people watching the site
d. Why did founder Larry Sanger leave Wikipedia? -- He thought that the authority should go to the experts, not just anyone.
e. What would abuse or vandalism look like on a Wikipedia page? -- it would be highlighted
f. What do the statistics quoted in the third paragraph of this piece reveal? -- how they use their money and where it comes from as well as goes to
g. Why do you think Wikipedia is so successful? -- its accessable and easy to use
h. Why might Wikipedia’s creators not want to accept advertising? -- it would boggle down the site and push certain people away from using it
i. How does Wikiscanner help increase the reliability of Wikipedia entries? -- it shows who is actually posting reliable facts or abusing it regularly

Activity #2:

In my everyday life, I do not use wikipedia. In school, I wasn't allowed to use it so I never really clicked on it for anything. If I needed something, I would go to a different site to learn about it. These 4 ways of using wikipedia are pretty cool because I didn't really have any idea abou them. I'm going to have to use them in the future. Especially for world lit! I think that teachers should give their student the option to use it for background information or even the links or content knowledge because as mentioned in the article, it DOES give a good backbone. If a student is struggling on where to start or is confused as to what the topic is about, let them search wiki for it. Obviously if it has worked this long, there has got to be something good about it.