A couple of weeks ago I sent out a Tweet that my students were working on a comparison of Wikipedia articles to articles in their textbooks. Judging by the reTweets and replies to my message, a lot of people were interested in the activity. What I left out of my Tweet was the third part of the assignment in which my students had to locate and use primary source documents to gain more insight into the various topics. You can find the outline of the assignment here.
There were two purposes to this assignment. First to dispel the myths that Wikipedia is unreliable and that textbooks are gospel truth. The second purpose was for students to see the value of primary source documents for gaining insights into historical events and or people. Both goals were met. The topics my students were investigating were the Sand Creek Massacre, the Battle of Little Bighorn, and the Fort Laramie Treaties. The vast majority of my students reported that they found the textbook easier to use for finding the "main points," but that the Wikipedia articles had the same information. They also reported that the Wikipedia articles had more depth of information.
Where Wikipedia shone was in getting students started on their searches for primary source documents. As you'll see in the outline, I asked my students to use the links at the end of each Wikipedia article to further investigate each topic and locate primary source documents. What I did not include in the outline is that I also allowed students to simply search the web on their own to find primary source documents. As I expected, most of them came to the realization that a lot what they were finding through their own searches was already listed in the links at the end of the Wikipedia articles. At the end of the activity every student was able to identify and add new information to their knowledge base using the primary source documents they located.
I welcome your questions and feedback. And if you found the outline useful, by all means please feel free to reuse it in your classrooms.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Textbooks, Wikipedia, and Primary Source Research
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10 comments:
Thanks. I love examples of how Wikipedia can be used in the classroom. Most of these lessons show teachers not to fear Wikipedia.
Richard, I am intrigued with your idea! I would love to try this with a group of students. While I am not in complete agreement about the reliability of Wikipedia, it is just plain silly to think that students don't use it. This seems like a great way to test it and teach students to think critically about their sources. Thanks!
I have to admit that I've recently changed my mind about Wikipedia and its uses as I was conditioned by many of my undergrad professors to steer clear of this online source. I have just recently reviewed a video by the founder of Wikipedia which allayed my fears.
The message that I try to get across to my students with Wikipedia is that if they see something that needs improvement that they should investigate how they can become part of the change.
Wikipedia is blocked for students in my district, and what a shame, because this activity is a potent lesson in media literacy, research techniques, primary source vs. secondary source reliability, and -- of course -- basic facts and content.
I'd love to see the powers in my district go through the lesson themselves. It would lift the firewall veil to show them that Wikipedia is not an evil to be feared, but a launching point for personal research. If we teach students how a wiki works and that Wikipedia is written/edited by you and me along with experts, they learn to approach it with healthy skepticism while picking its bones at the same time.
I personally believe that students should not be allowed to use Wikipedia as a single source, but if we encourage them to use Wikipedia the way your lesson suggests, we empower them with the ability to discern fact from bunk and opinion as well as teaching them how to widen and deepen their searches.
Wikipedia's information sometimes may be worthy of dispute, but that's the beauty of the wiki format: the articles are collaborative, "self-cleansing" efforts to compile and edit information. Taught to be used the way you describe, Wikipedia becomes a mighty portal for students as they learn how to explore the internet for credible information.
I've been lurking for a while, and want to thank you for your work here!
I do something similar, however, with an additional component. I ask students to check out the discussion tab at the top of the wikipedia page. We have a discussion about the "truth" and the negotiation of knowledge. It's especially interesting to discuss controversial topics since there are usually changes made the day of the discussion. This part of the lesson really addresses research skills and information literacy, as well as provides students an opportunity to examine the nature of wikipedia as a resource. If there's time, we also take a "field trip" to Wikipedia pages about corporations to see if we can find negative statements. Usually, we don't because that information is actively being managed. It makes for a nice segway into digital citizenship and managing personal information on the Internet.
Thanks for sharing your lesson -- I'll be revisiting mine and tweaking it to add some of your ideas.
If you haven't seen it already, you might also want to check out Wikipedia's page for school projects editing Wikipedia. I like this sort of assignment; it's nice to see educators taking an active role in showing students how information works in practice.
I did a similar activity last week comparing information about Cuba from a text book, Wikipedia, and the CIA fact book. It was the first time I did something like this with my 6th graders and I did have to do a lot of leading when using the Wikipedia pages and the CIA fact book, but in the end the students were amazed at the wealth of information on both of those sites compared to the relatively limited amount in their text book. I'm going to look at bias in future articles with the students next!
About 2 years ago, I had my students (grades 4-8) start out their research projects using Answers.com. This allowed them to access a variety of encyclopedia articles as well as Wikipedia. When using Wikipedia, I tried to get them to cross-check their information with the other sources. If Wikipedia was the only source, then it was the big clue to also check the school library catalog as another double-check. Unfortunately, because I did not recommend Wikipedia to teachers back in 2005, many still insist that it isn't a valid source. What's the trick to help others realize that technology is an evolution and not an absolute when it comes to research?
Beth,
I don't know if there are any "tricks," but one thing that I have found effective is to show teachers the disclaimers that are posted on some Wikipedia articles. Then ask them if any of the books or news websites they use have disclaimers of bias
Richard
Great lesson! Thank you for you willingness to not only share the lesson idea, but also its resources.
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