WP 1 REVISED: A Tool Mislabeled: How Wikipedia Could Reinvent A Student’s Approach to Research
One thing has never changed throughout my years as a student: teachers continuously assert that students should avoid unreliable websites like Wikipedia and tend towards dense, pedantic scholarly articles as sources in their research. Yet few teachers explain their reasoning and leave students confused about why a site like Wikipedia, which seems to contain every piece of information needed for a project, is off-limits.
Wikipedia has long carried the reputation of being an untrustworthy source due to its open contribution policies allowing users to add and edit information freely. Instead of fearing this resource, however, educators should further lean into its strengths as a massive collection of well connected information and users, while allowing students to assist in mitigating the possibility of misinformation to reinvent the idea of lower-level research entirely.
Although high-level research demands rigorous analysis, one can’t expect younger students to examine information effectively without a meaningful foundation. Educators should emphasize the importance of learning and curiosity to their younger students before prioritizing hyper-credibility. With the correct execution, teachers can utilize Wikipedia as a tool to optimize their lesson plans with unique, experiential learning that relevantly familiarizes young students with the process of academic research.
Malavika Shetty, a senior lecturer at Boston University, touched on her view of Wikipedia’s identity in the present day during her feature on the Writing Remix Podcast: “Wikipedia is one of the largest writing projects in the world right now.” (Writing Remix Podcast #46 0:06:52) Contrary to the “static” information present within numerous other websites, such as Encyclopedia Britannica, Wikipedia allows users to take action in the synthesis of essential data. Instead of simply categorizing Wikipedia as a mere source, teachers should capitalize on the platform’s collaborative aspect and use the site as a learning experience for their students.
As a result, teachers could completely eliminate the necessity for younger students to produce research papers. Although meaningfully challenging, research papers are more than likely left to be forgotten once they are graded. The student could instead spend their time analyzing, cross-referencing, and contributing information to a Wikipedia page of their choice to hone the fundamental skills key to any research.
Furthermore, the prospect of adding information to a website with millions of active users gives students a reason to do their best work. Additionally, Wikipedia’s massive collection of interlocking articles encourages students to branch out and explore further topics of interest related to their main ideas. Ultimately, Wikipedia provides the perfect, seamlessly operable platform for students of all ages to navigate effectively and meaningfully.
Out of curiosity, I created a Wikipedia account to gain a deeper understanding of the contribution process and substantiate the validity of Wikipedia as a tool of research development. The user interface makes it easy to identify articles that require extra research or revisions. Simply looking through other’s contributions helped me to practice my close analysis skills while also teaching me about topics that I had never before encountered. The two articles I edited amassed over 11,000 views in just two months, far more than I could have expected by simply publishing my own work independently online. Although students won’t contribute for the money or the fame, I found that built in metrics like a page’s view count provide ample motivation to create something worth being proud of.
Although one may think that with over 59,000,000 unique pages, it is unlikely for young, inexperienced researchers to have the opportunity to add anything significant to major articles, there are many opportunities for students to improve the site. In an interview with Lex Fridman, Wikipedia’s founder Jimmy Wales mentioned the platform’s user contribution difficulties at scale: “[Contributing to Wikiedpia] has gotten much harder because there are fewer topics that are just greenfield available.” (Jimmy Wales: Wikipedia | Lex Fridman Podcast #385 0:06:09) Despite Wikipedia certainly having less room for contributions on major pages, the site still contains “content gaps” that leave out important and influential figures.
For example, Shetty explains that only 15% of all biographies on the site are about females. (Writing Remix Podcast #46 0:13:19) Staggering misrepresentations in the makeup of contributors has lead to skewed contributions to the site as a whole. By encouraging students to research and interact with topics that have personal relevance, teachers promote the development of core skills such as interviewing, synthesizing, and presenting and at the same time help provide more comprehensive information on the site for all.
After they submit their project, Students can see their work evolve as hundreds of thousands of contributors around the globe add information to their piece. As Wales explains, “That idea of collaborating where people can, much like open-source software, you put your code out and then people suggest revisions. They change it, and it modifies and it grows beyond the original creator, it’s just a fun, wonderful, quite geeky hobby, but people enjoy it.” (Jimmy Wales: Wikipedia | Lex Fridman Podcast #385 0:06:09) By transitioning research toward Wikipedia, educators can provide students with ownership of their work and give them an audience to observe and bolster their findings, all for free. Plus, seeing a piece evolve is much more fulfilling than having it sit idly in the back of a binder!
Educators have the unique and lucrative opportunity to adapt their coursework to a new age of digital information sharing. Not only does contributing to the site help fill skewed content gaps, but students will have the opportunity to find an audience and see their piece grow and evolve with the assistance of other contributors. Instead of forcing young students to create projects that follow the same pattern of traditional research, teachers should assign Wikipedia articles to turn their students into contributors of “the largest writing project in the world.”
Works Cited
Dissinger, Daniel, and Katherine Robison. 46: Teaching with Wikipedia w/ Malavika Shetty. Writing Remix Podcast, 28 May 2022, https://writingremixpodcast.com/2021/02/19/episode-46-teaching-with-wikipedia-with-malavika-shetty/. Accessed 17 Sept. 2023.
“Jimmy Wales: Wikipedia | Lex Fridman Podcast #385.” YouTube, YouTube, 18 June 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diJp4zoQPqo&ab_channel=LexFridman. Accessed 17 Sept. 2023.
“Size of Wikipedia.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 1 Sept. 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Size_of_Wikipedia#:~:text=As%20of%2016%20September%202023,of%20all%20pages%20on%20Wikipedia.
