DavePress » Academia http://davepress.net Using the internet to make government more interesting Mon, 14 Jun 2010 11:44:02 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 The University of Wikipedia http://davepress.net/2008/01/14/the-university-of-wikipedia/ http://davepress.net/2008/01/14/the-university-of-wikipedia/#comments Mon, 14 Jan 2008 10:28:46 +0000 Dave http://davepress.net/2008/01/14/the-university-of-wikipedia/



Mike Butcher at Techcrunch UK reports on a University tutor banning her students from researching essays on the web:

The education world has pursued new technology with an almost evangelical zeal and it is time to take a step back and give proper consideration of how we use it.

Too many students don’t use their own brains enough. We need to bring back the important values of research and analysis.

Too right. Now, I’m a fan of Wikipedia and believe that, as a tool for getting a quick overview on the subject, it’s invaluable. I look stuff up on, and link to, Wikipedia time and time again. That doesn’t mean, however, that I would use it as a part of academic study. That’s no different from using Britannica as a basis for an essay or thesis, and surely nobody would do that?

The issue here isn’t Wikipedia, or Google, but the fact that the students in question are idiots.

Universities make incredible resources available to students through web catalogues in libraries, etc. However, maybe there is a lesson to be learned in terms of the ease of use of these systems – is that why students are turning to less academic sources? Or are they just being lazy?

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