I am unfamiliar with Wikipedia and wikispaces. As an
undergrad my professors never allowed us to use them, therefore I never became
familiar with it. I don’t know how they work and have never used one as a
reference. My professors said that they were unreliable and I took them at
their word. I’m not really the one to judge if Wikipedia is or is not a
reliable source.
According to an article by Daniel Terdiman (2005) journal
Nature, Wikipedia is as accurate as Britannica. Although Britannica came out
looking a bit better than Wikipedia, the leader of Wikipedia was pleased with
the outcome.
Early in the
semester I remember something being said that we can read articles and they sound
right, but they are not always correct. What that says to me is that one can’t depend
on just one source for information. Careful consideration has to be given to
each piece of information we relay to others.
I found School Tube and Teacher Tube very good
websites as far as I could see. I signed up of Teacher Tube site just to play
around with it. I would use School Tube for my grand baby who is still a preschooler.
He is just beginning to put sentences together. I would use it to teach simple
things I think he should know. I like the way you can put different faces on to
bodies that bounce around and pop-up.
I have not played around with Teacher Tube enough to
go into any details, but there are a lot of subjects that a teacher can
explore, which can make learning more interesting. As I reflect back on this
course, let us not forget that with all these tools some students may still not
be engaged in what is being taught.
There will still have to be some personal interaction
with students in order to get to know them. We are living in a very different
time than when I was going to school. Students today have a lot more to deal with on
a daily basis. Women have advanced in education, there are more of them going
to college than men. Yet, are women happier now than men in this new position? Research says that they are not, according to
Freakonomics Radio.
It is my understanding that most of the editing done
on Wikipedia is done by men. It also seems that there is no clear reason why
women are not engaging in it. I think I would be a little intimidated to put
something there and then have someone delete it because they didn’t like it. I
think women are more into having dialogue than just deleting and replacing with
their own information. I may be wrong. What do think?
Very interesting question Sandra. I think you may be on the right track when it comes to why women don't edit Wikipedia as much. I guess for me personally, I just don't care enough or have the time to edit it and don't want to deal with conflict if someone else finds what they think to be fault in my edit. I guess this is a big issue seeing as the amount of research as to why women don't edit Wikipedia is increasing.
ReplyDeleteOne of the reasons from the podcast was that females just don't have the time to do it.
DeleteDo men really have more time than women? I know we can make a laundry list of all the responsibilities women have and I certainly feel like I am at my limit but, men have a lot going on too. I don't think that my husband has more spare time than I do. Do you think that is a valid reason?
DeleteIn my personal life, I don't have the time and as you said, my husband doesn't either. If I looked at who would be more likely to correct a wiki if we did have time, it would probably be him. As I stated, when I see incorrect information online, I tend to just move past it and chalk it up to a bad post. As you also stated, I don't want to be involved in fighting with someone over who's right. Too many other important things to do.
DeleteI really don't think either My husband or I would edit a Wiki. If I had to choose, I would have to say that it would be me. What I would really like to edit is other people's craigslist posts.
DeleteBut we don't write research papers using information on Craigslist ;-)
DeleteI agree I feel as if all my teachers always told me wiki was a unreliable source so I always thought the same. Although research state that they asked 49 people and 40 out of that 49 people either used wiki or created a wiki before, surveys show that wiki is a beneficial and helps tremendously. I never knew more girls attend college rather than girls but hey ill take it girl power :), that's very interesting study which has been conducted stating that men are much more likely to edit a wiki page.
ReplyDeletehttp://jolt.merlot.org/vol6no1/deters_0310.htm
From the podcast Stierch said that most women just don't have the time to do it. When I heard this, I was surprised with the fact that men are more likely to edit wikipedia pages. Good thing is that there are some women that do edit and maybe there will be more.
ReplyDeleteI do like to use Wikipedia and I was pleased to hear that the amount of errors found on wikipedia was not far away from errors found in Britannica. Whats interesting is that people would think that Britannica has no errors, but it turns out it does. I think the only difference in opinion is that Britannica is printed and Wikipedia is online. One is easier to change than the other.
Sandra,
ReplyDeleteI was also told that Wiki's weren't a reliable source and I had personal reasons to believe that as well. After reading more about their validity, I was quite surprised to hear that they are reviewed to eliminate false information. I may have to loosen up a bit and use in a new way with my students.
As for editing Wikis, I have to admit that editing someone else's work without being asked to is intimidating to me. I worry about stirring the pot or starting some kind of argument that I don't want to be in. Even if I am right, I don't feel like fighting with strangers. Maybe, the possible repercussions are what keep women from editing wikis as much as men.
I like that you did your own investigation of School Tube and some of the other sites that you were unfamiliar with. I am curious about the videos you found for your grandchild on SchoolTube. I would love to know which ones they like. I haven't been as successful in finding things on SchoolTube that interest me. After reading your post, I decided to dig a little deeper into the sites too. I think that TeacherTube had more to offer in instructional videos and that SchoolTube was a cute place to post student projects.
The time issue is pretty surprising. I might lean more toward the computer science/programming bias/divide, because it requires some (albeit minor) technical skills to edit Wikipedia. Given the gender gap in computer science (which is not at all an ability issue), perhaps this plays a role.
ReplyDelete