The Wired Campus this week highlights an article by David Parry, an assistant professor of Emerging Media and Communications at the University of Texas at Dallas.
The discussion that follows each article reflects the polarization of views about Wikipedia. Parry argues that dismissing Wikipedia entirely from academic use is irresponsible. Rather than arguing about how/whether to use Wikipedia, we should be more interested in why Wikipedia exists.
Students and teachers alike must understand how systems of knowledge creation and archivization are changing.
Wikipedia itself comments on Academic Use. Any encyclopedia is considered a tertiary source of information, subject to evaluation. Wikipedia is no different in that regard.
Parry makes, in my mind, a more important comment about the role of technology in the democratization of learning:
what is more important is teaching people how this technology changes the social sphere so that students too can be empowered to engage the polis rather than being passive users of Word Processing programs.
Let us understand the role that new media plays in centering the learning around the learner, and making life-long learners of us all.
Filed under: educational technology, open systems
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