Social and Cultural Foundations of American Education/Chapter 1/What is the philosophy of Wikipedia? 2
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[edit] The Philosophy of Wikipedia
by: Rachel Villorente
"'Wikipedia' - a silly name for what was at first a very silly project." - Larry Sanger, co-creator of Wikipedia
Money is not something the ordinary college student has a lot of, so naturally, I was delighted when I found that ECI 301, Social and Cultural Foundations of American Education, did not assign a textbook to purchase. My delight, however, was short-lived. On the first day of class, Professor Allen informed the class we would be writing our own textbook. 'Trainwreck' was the only word that came to mind. How could a bunch of undergraduate, prospective teachers possibly compete with scholarly, traditional experts who write textbooks?
The whole idea spawned from Wikibook's mother site, Wikipedia (Wikipedia, 2006). Once Nupedia, Wikipedia was created by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger January 15, 2001. Wales and Sanger wanted to create a free, open encyclopedia that could be edited by anyone, scholar or ignoramus. Sounds crazy, right? (Kind of like students writing their own textbook crazy). Basically, Wikipedia is an encyclopedia where the definition of a topic is determined by a consensus. For example, if the community decides that two plus two equals five, instead of four, then according to Wikipedia, this is the truth (Poe, 2006).
The idea of an open encyclopedia was met with endless criticism for obvious reasons. For example, how can a person be sure that what he/she reads is correct? What if a prankster decides to purposely write incorrect, or even slanderous, material? Wikipedia solves this problem by making guests register, so that edits to pages can be tracked. Also, experts and guardians of Wikipedia contribute and watch pages to make sure that articles are not vandalized. (Nature, 2005).
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Ever since Wikipedia's creation, research to compare Wikipedia to other encyclopedias in order to gauge Wikipedia's accuracy has been common. The news journal, Nature, conducted a study in which the Encyclopedia Britannica was compared to Wikipedia. Scientists were told to look for factual errors, critical omissions, and misleading statements in excerpts from both encyclopedias. Amazingly, scientists found Britannica had 123 errors out of 42 articles, and Wikipedia had 162 errors out of 42 articles. (Wikipedia, 2006) Not bad considering that most Wikipedia articles are not written by experts. Not only is Wikipedia seen as a credible source of information, but also an extensive source of information; the English Wikipedia has 1 million entries while Britannica can boast only 100,000 online entries (Poe, 2006). In addition, the English Wikipedia grows substantially daily; Wikipedia's expansion is evident internationally in German, French, Chinese, Dutch, Esperanto, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Arabic, and Hungarian (Wikipedia, 2006). Impressive!
Wikipedia Timeline
- January 15, 2001, Wikipedia formally begins
- February 12, 2001, Wikipedia passes 1000 articles
- February 2002, Spanish Wikipedia, Enciclopedia Libre, created
- August 2002, Wales establishes Wikipedia as a free organization, and therefore, no commercial advertisements are ever ran on Wikipedia
- December 2002, Wiktionary, a thesaurus and dictionary in every language, is created
- June 2003, Wikiquote created
- July 2003, Wikibooks created
- April 2004, Wikipedia's article count reaches 250,000
- October 2005, access to all Wikipedia sites was blocked in most areas of mainland China
- December 2005, registration becomes a requirement for creation of new pages on the English Wikipedia
- February 2006, Wikipedia has one million user accounts registered in English
Individuals around the world now have access to a free encyclopedia, given they have access to the internet. This fact implies a few things. First, this means that entries have an opportunity to be culturally unbiased. Remember, anyone and everyone can shape a particular article to say and mean whatever he/she wants. Second, the option to edit an article will only lead to the article's benefit. Much like when a professor tells his/her students to have their papers peer reviewed before submitting them; the same principle applies to Wikipedia. Wikipedia creates an interdependent network of people who are able to accomplish something they could not do on their own - build a credible, but informal source of information (Poe, 2006). Third, because Wikipedia is online, it can be accessed and edited twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Since Wikipedia is readily accessible, the information has the ability to be as up-to-date as possible as soon as possible, without having to reprint another edition. For example, when President Bush is no longer President Bush, a user can simply log on and change George's title to former president (a sad day for all, I'm sure...).
How is Wikipedia possible? In the past few decades, scientists and engineers have made leaps and bounds in the technological field. Generations now grow up with technology at their feet and maneuvering through the internet is child's play. There is so much information on the internet that present and future generations will no doubt benefit tremendously. Not only is it possible to read a text, but also possible to write your own and have others edit it. When a student buys a textbook, he/she can get online and take supplemental practice tests on the internet to better prepare themselves for the actual exam. If a text or teacher does not provide enough information to satisfy a students curiosity, he/she can simply look it up and read endlessly about the topic. Never before has education been so interactive and engaging. As prospective teachers, it is our duty to keep learning new habits and thoughts to keep students active in learning (Richards, 2003). Sites such as Wikipedia make this possible.
[edit] Sidebar
This is a video clip from Comedy Central's 'Colbert Report'. Stephen Colbert demonstrates how to use Wikipedia in a comical manner. However, you really shouldn't follow in Colbert's footsteps; the elephant population has not grown significantly. Enjoy! (You'll need to download the latest flash player to watch the video.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFT4OfdnVpU
[edit] Multiple Choice
1. Greg wants to start an encyclopedia where people can add information to the articles freely. However, users must sign up, establish a user name, and confirm a valid e-mail address. Additionally, Greg requires the users to have at least a high school diploma to contribute to the encyclopedia. Once a person is registered, he/she must pay fifty dollars a month to continue their membership. Why is this not considered an open encyclopedia?
a) Users must pay, have a diploma, and establish a user name
b) Users must establish a user name
c) This is an example of an open encyclopedia
d) Users must have a valid e-mail
2. After watching The Colbert Report, all of the ECI 301 students logged onto Wikipedia and changed the information on elephants to say that there are more elephants in Africa today then there were 100 years ago. Furthermore, the majority of Wikipedia users agree that there are more elephants in Africa today then there were one hundred years ago. So, Wikipedia takes which of the following actions:
a) guardians come in and change the information to say that there are not more elephants today than there were one hundred years ago.
b) because the information is agreed by the majority of the public, Wikipedia, on principle, is required to keep the information to say that the elephant population is increasing.
c) goes to Africa to regulate the elephant population.
d) takes privileges away from all of the users that tried to change the information on elephants.
3. According to the Nature study,
a) Wikipedia averaged 2.92 errors per article and Britannica averaged 3.86 errors per article.
b) Wikipedia is no match for the accuracy and prestige of Encyclopedia Britannica.
c) Wikipedia averaged 3.86 errors per article and Britannica averaged 2.92 errors per article.
d) Encyclopedia Britannica is old and outdated and is no match for the awesomeness of Wikipedia.
4. Why is Wikipedia a ".org" and not a ".com"?
a) Wales vowed never to run commercial ads on Wikipedia.
b) None of the commercial companies wanted to be involved in Wikipedia's venture.
c) Commercial ads are not part of the wiki code and therefore are not possible to post.
d) Encyclopedia Britannica said it would be a bad idea to be a ".com".
5. As a student, you find a gramatical error on a fellow student's article. What is the procedure that you should follow to correct the error?
a) You cannot change another person's article.
b) You simple click on 'edit this page' and change the error.
c) You can change the error, but first you have to register with Wikipedia.
d) After paying a small fee for user rights, you can edit the student's article.
[edit] Essay
Discuss two advantages and two disadvantages of Wikipedia.
[edit] References
Nature.(2005). Wiki's wild world. Retrieved September 14,2006 from
Poe, Marshall.(2006). The hive. The Atlantic Monthly. Retrieved September 14,2006 from
Richards, Brett.(2003). Intelligent learning: getting smarter about teaching. The Journal for Quality and Participation, 26(4), 12.
- Retrieved September 15,2006 from
- http://proquest.umi.com.proxy.lib.odu.edu
Wikipedia. History of wikipedia. Retrieved September 14,2006 from
Wikimedia Commons.(2006) Retrieved September 19,2006 from
Multiple Choice Answers: 1.a; 2.b; 3.c; 4.a; 5.b
