Comments on: Hatred, Racism, the 9th Governor of Oklahoma, WikiPedia, and “approved textbook history”

By: Tami

Tami — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:42:45 +0000

I find the idea that people would be opposed to students using as many sources as possible. If we are not teaching students to be critical about the information that they are presented with, I believe that we are doing them a grave injustice. I think that Wikipedia and the Web 2.0 tools are fabulous ways to bring in perspective to our classes. I think this one speaks to the idea that students should be talking about textbooks and what information may or may not be included, and how perspective influences discourse. I think more teachers should present multiple perspectives/ sources of information such as you have presented.

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 23:24:43 +0000

Wes,
I agree with you about the use of Wikipedia in primary and secondary classrooms. My feeling, and I have seen similar thoughts from the creaters of the wiki, is that anytime a student is allowed to use an encyclopedia they should be allowed to use Wikipedia. If only primary sources are allowed, obviously the wiki should not be used. The college level is much the same, though Wikipedia makes a great jumping off point. Do the initial search in Wikipedia and then look at the sources sited in Wikipedia, just like you would in the encyclopedia. Why don’t people understand that difference?
Interesting information about Alfalfa Bill. I have heard it said, “If you are not a crook, then don’t run for office in Oklahoma.” So many of our governers have shaded pasts that we often glaze over. Isn’t this a lot like sweeping the dirt under the rug?
Another reason why we should never rely on only one source of information. Check & recheck your information, I try to teach this to my students, but if many of our adults don’t understand this information, how long will it take our kids to understand?

By: UPDATE: To Wikipediate or Not to Wikipediate - That is the Question by ITGS Online

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 11:31:17 +0000

[...] cross year 1 and 2 assignment for you to get your teeth into. Please also check out a recent blog article by Fryer who argues that who can in the end grumble about an Encyclopedia that can be continuously updated [...]

By: Reidar Mosvold

Reidar Mosvold — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 06:38:02 +0000

This was an absolutely excellent read! Not only was it interesting to learn more about American history (which I, as a Norwegian, don’t know that well I’m afraid), but this article also raised several interesting points about the use and possibilities of what is often referred to as “web 2.0 tools” in education. Your reference to the reply of this former educator also indicates, to me at least, that we are facing some attitudes towards “new” technology that I would say constitute some kind of cultural hurdles towards progress, not only in education but in society at large. I see the same lack of trust or even fear towards technology with some of my colleagues at our university. Educators who are not willing to learn new things, isn’t that some kind of contradiction of terms?

Keep up the good work! Your blog is always interesting to follow

-r

By: edh

edh — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 05:50:12 +0000

Nice post! I linked to this and excerpted the bit on librarians and Wikipedia on my wiki, Cyber64edu. Thanks for the interesting object lesson on teaching history!

By: Miguel Guhlin

Miguel Guhlin — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 05:45:24 +0000

Great post, Wes. If we can’t face the facts that our forefathers were human, how much less will we be able to accept the flaws in our thinking and change for the better.

Miguel