Wikilicious

Hi Everyone,

After a brief hiatus I'm back in the world of 23 Things. I'm sure you were all bemoaning my absence ;)

Like most other people,I use Wikipedia quite a lot. As Aqua says, Wikipedia is a great starting point for research if you know nothing about a topic and want a succinct introduction to it. This is what I tell students in information literacy classes (I think they instantly become sceptical of you if you run Wikipedia into the ground at the first opportunity!) Obviously Wikipedia articles haven't been subjected to a scholarly review process, which limits your ability to cite them for academic purposes, but this doesn't mean they're not useful. Moreover, as the 'About Wikipedia' page says, some of the more 'established' articles which have been around for a while are quite balanced and are reasonably well referenced, which enhances their reliability.

I can't say I've really used wikis all that much, however. I would imagine they'd be very useful when collaborating with peers on a project, or when trying to create an organisational reference tool (I could envisage, for instance, a library creating a wiki about circulation procedures -- where rules are perpetually being revised).

I made my first contribution to a wiki today! I went to Wikipedia and found the page on Newtown. I edited a photo caption and added some information on the public transport there. I didn't find that I needed to become a member...?

Aqua noted the difficulty in getting students to contribute to wikis. I think many students are time poor, which may account for their reluctance to participate. This is why I think wikis are great for actual project work where people have an incentive to participate...

Goota go,
Kate