Wikipedia:Schools' FAQ

Schools' FAQ

This FAQ page deals with some questions teachers and school administrators might have about the content of information in Wikipedia, and use of Wikipedia by students. If you are thinking about assigning Wikipedia as a class project see Wikipedia:School and University projects.

Overview

As the world's most widely used online encyclopedia, Wikipedia inevitably finds its way into classroom activities. It might be fair to say open-source encyclopedias will become at least a permanent—and perhaps major—part of the educational landscape.

Concepts such as open source, copyleft, collaborative writing, and volunteer contributions for the public good can be new and unfamiliar ideas in educational settings. Wikipedia offers an opportunity for educators to explore concepts of public trust that are likely to continue growing in prominence throughout the lives of today's population of youth.

Some common questions students or educators ask about Wikipedia are listed below, with answers based on the status of Wikipedia, and on reasonable projections for the immediate future.

Is Wikipedia accurate and reliable?

Wikipedia is as reliable as the external sources on which we rely. Properly written articles cite the sources, and a reader should rely on the Wikipedia article as much, but no more, than the sources on which the article relies. If an article doesn't cite a source, it may or may not be reliable. Students should never use information in Wikipedia for formal purposes (such as a school essay) until they have checked those external sources. Fortunately, Wikipedia cites its sources more frequently than most other publications.

Wikipedia is rapidly developing, so the reliability of the encyclopedia is improving all the time. Because readers continually compare articles to what they already know, articles tend to become more accurate and detailed. Certain articles about many of the major sciences were developed from other free or public domain encyclopedias. This provides a reliable basis upon which encyclopedia writers could develop more current information. Wikipedia is cited almost daily in the press (see Wikipedia as a press source).

On the other hand, it is possible for an article on Wikipedia to be biased, outdated, or factually incorrect. This is true for any resource. One should always double-check the accuracy of important facts, regardless of the source. In general, popular articles are more accurate because they are read more often and therefore any errors are corrected in a more timely fashion. Also, there may be a Western bias in particular because that is where most contributors are from. For more information, see Wikipedia:Criticisms.

What keeps someone from contributing false or misleading information?

Nothing. Anyone can, at this very moment, go to almost any page and change the information to make it misleading or wrong. Very specific minor facts, like an exact date for a less well known historical event, are less trustworthy since vandals sometimes change them. The vast majority of edits are however improvements.

Vandalism usually do not stay for long. Scores of contributors monitor the list of contributions (particularly to important or controversial articles), and will quickly delete nonsense or obviously wrong articles, and undo baseless edits. Almost all articles will be on one or more editors' personal watch lists, and they will quickly undo any vandalism. Major articles will be on hundreds of watchlists, so that whenever vandalism is performed, it will be seen and undone in a matter of minutes or less. If an anonymous or relatively new user changes a number or a date by a little bit, without justifying their edit, it is particularly likely to raise a red flag. If someone only contributes vandalism (that obviously isn't a mistake), then they can be blocked.

Unlike print sources, however, Wikipedia keeps a full history of the changes that led to the current version of each article. If something seems strange about an article, click on the "history" tab at the top of the page to see what has been changed recently.

Wikipedia cannot be perfect. There is almost certainly inaccurate information in it, somewhere, which has not yet been discovered to be wrong. Therefore, if you are using Wikipedia for important research or a school project, you should always verify the information somewhere else. You should also check that the other source does not rely on Wikipedia for its information.

What does wiki mean?

The term "wiki" is derived from the phrase "WikiWiki", which is the Hawaiian word for "quick". A wiki is a web site which allows people to contribute content; see our article on wikis for more information about this.

Some people ask if "wiki" is related to the Wiccan religion; it is not.

Can students cite Wikipedia in assignments?

For information about how to format citations, see Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia.

It depends on what teachers accept. The best policy for all writing is to have more than one source. Wikipedia can be an excellent starting place for further research. Teachers might ask students what they did to validate the information they learned from Wikipedia. Using a comprehensive search engine such as Google or Yahoo!, students can easily compare Wikipedia content with information from other reputable websites. Most Wikipedia articles also contain an "External links" section at the bottom, which often leads to other relevant sites. Students can compare information in Wikipedia with information in other encyclopedias or books. As a general rule, contributors to Wikipedia are encouraged to cite their sources, but, of course, not all do. For the sake of verifiability, it is better to cite an article that has listed its sources. Most of our better articles have sections such as "References," "Sources," "Notes," "Further reading," or "External links," which generally contain such information.

For purposes of establishing authorship and finding more sources, students may also find the articles' "History" tabs useful, as these detail every contribution — the contributor and what he or she contributed. All of our contributors have talk pages for leaving them messages. While logged in, a toolbox link ("E-mail this user") is also visible beside the user pages of many registered contributors. Other means of contacting Wikipedians are listed at Wikipedia:Contact us.

Is it a safe environment for young people?

Wikipedia has similar safety issues to other equally open environments. Participation in Wikipedia requires youths to know basic Internet safety practices (which they should already know).

Wikipedia has the advantage, that most communication is done in an open, public, reviewable manner (even personal "talk page" messages are readable by anybody). Note, however, that contrary to some sites directed towards youth, Wikipedia does not have staff to patrol discussion pages or remove inappropriate comments; it only has volunteer administrators, who will exclude people breaching civility rules, but who will not censor conversations if they deal with adult topics.

Children and their parents must understand that any person no matter how good or ill motivated, is free to participate in the project. While some child-focussed online communities will remove members who are found/suspected of being dangerous towards children in the "real/offline" world; Wikipedia will not remove users based on outside activities (regardless of the legality or morality of those activities). Hence, no child should ever assume that if somebody has an account on Wikipedia, then they're safe to meet in person. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia project, not a social environment for making "offline" friends.

Wikipedia is not bowdlerized or censored. It contains articles on subjects such as racial slurs, controversial political and religious groups and movements, and sexual acts. However, the information about sexual topics will probably be more neutral and factually accurate than what young teens hear from their peers, and no more erotic than the material of North American or European sex education classes; that is, articles on these topics are kept to facts and are not meant to incite or titillate the reader. Note also that although it discusses the methodology of terrorism and violence, Wikipedia is not a how-to guide.

Pages which are normally appropriate for children to use are occasionally vandalized with rude words or content which may be offensive. Vandalism is normally noticed and removed within a few minutes — if not seconds — but it is still possible that a person may access a page before this is dealt with. Teachers should supervise young children on Wikipedia, as they would in any other online environment. However, the 2006 Wikipedia CD Selection is a specific selection of 2000 articles suitable for school children and has been checked and edited by deletion for this audience. It contains about the equivalent content to a 5000 page book with an emphasis on Geography and Science, and is available as a free download for use by schools.

What is open-source media?

Open-source media is a kind of information produced by open groups of developers in which anybody who wants to can use the information. Open-source production emerged among software engineers with the production of GNU/Linux, a free software computer operating system. MediaWiki is an open source software package that supports an open source encyclopedia.

Open-source production relies on qualified users to maintain a constantly improving collection, whether it is an open collection of computer code or of encyclopedic information. Open source collections typically maintain back-up resources, so if a developer accidentally damages the code or the content, it can easily be reverted to an earlier, stable version. The same backup system provides protection against malicious damage to an open-source project.

Why do people contribute to open-source projects?

Few surveys have developed reliable answers to why people contribute to open source works like Wikipedia. Some sort of public interest or community spirit is often part of the motive. Open-source projects offer an opportunity to contribute to something that has lasting value and that will continue to grow. Open-source publishing allows writers and software developers to apply their skills outside of a strictly business environment. Casual writers and editors sometimes participate as a hobby or as a learning experience. Volunteering is also one of the few ways writers and Web designers can gain experience and exposure without already having any.

Why have we not heard of this before?

Wikipedia is relatively new, but chances are always getting better than ever that you have heard of it before. Wikipedia's rapid growth recently has been reported in many prominent media outlets. Wikipedia was established in January 2001, and is now making a place for itself in the world's collection of knowledge. As the encyclopedia grows, more people learn about it every day, much in the same way Internet use surged in the late 1990s. See Wikipedia:Press coverage.

Most people will encounter Wikipedia for the first time through a search engine. Many Google search queries, for instance, will return a Wikipedia article on the first results page. Others may see it referenced on other Web sites or in newspapers.

Many other online encyclopedias simply copy (parts of) Wikipedia, which is allowed because it uses a free content license. This should be mentioned on the page, but the message can be hard to notice. So you may have come across a Wikipedia article without knowing it. However, considering the speed at which Wikipedia develops, these are often quite out of date.

Wikipedia does not advertise as many new services do, so public knowledge of Wikipedia is mostly a result of word of mouth, readers discovering the service while browsing online, or people learning about the encyclopedia from news reports.

Beyond information from the encyclopedia, what can students learn from Wikipedia?

See also Wikipedia:School and University projects

Most youths will likely at some point become involved in interactive online activities. For educators, youths' involvement with Wikipedia provides an opportunity to survey youths' understanding of online safety, and to teach appropriate practices. Educators can use Wikipedia as a way of teaching students to develop hierarchies of credibility that are essential for navigating and conducting research on the Internet.

Wikipedia provides an opportunity for teachers to discuss the concept of the public domain. Wikipedia is an opportunity to participate in an open community that relies primarily on mutual respect and cooperation, but which is not related to familiar authority figures some youths might tend to oppose.

Editing in Wikipedia is an opportunity to learn to participate in collective editorial processes. Wikipedia presents a ready opportunity for youths to research, compile and publish articles for peer review. For youths who contribute images, selection and production of an image provides opportunities to learn what a market wants from an artist. Youths who master skills for accurate writing and drawing about encyclopedic subjects are better equipped to develop their own style in more creative genres.

Because all articles in Wikipedia must conform to neutral point-of-view, students participating in collaborative editing activities on Wikipedia are building experience in detecting and eliminating bias in writing.

See Andy Carvin's blog entry Turning Wikipedia into an asset for schools.

Can a school group set up its own wiki?

Yes. MediaWiki is an open source software package, which means anyone who knows how to use it and who has access to a server computer may set up his or her own wiki project.

Access to a wiki database can be password protected, to allow groups to develop an open document within their membership. Passwords can allow a wiki to be developed by a school club, a teachers group, a regional group of schools, or any group within an educational community. Wikis might be used for school histories, to develop yearbook material or as class projects. A group can operate a wiki project online or within a closed local area network.

Where can I learn more about Wikipedia?

Visit Wikipedia:About for more information about us, as well as the Community Portal or some of our FAQs. The main page is also available.