{"id":49696452,"date":"2008-02-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-02-29T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/wikipedia-or-wickedpedia\/"},"modified":"2024-01-12T11:49:48","modified_gmt":"2024-01-12T16:49:48","slug":"wikipedia-or-wickedpedia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/wikipedia-or-wickedpedia\/","title":{"rendered":"Wikipedia or Wickedpedia?"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Mention Wikipedia within the ivy-covered walls of the academy and you\u2019ll find no shortage of opinions, ranging from wildly enthusiastic to mildly apocalyptic. That\u2019s no surprise: the web site, available for free and developed by an army of volunteers, raises questions that lie at the heart of scholarship and inquiry. What is the value of expertise? Who owns knowledge? Should we trust the \u201cwisdom of crowds\u201d or fear the mob?<\/p>\n

In the workaday world of elementary and secondary education, however, these philosophical musings seem less to the point. The questions are simpler: Can an online encyclopedia that\u2019s edited by anyone, and thus no one, be trusted as a credible information source? Should students be encouraged to tap this tool as a supplement to their textbooks? And is it even possible<\/em> to discourage its use?<\/p>\n

To find out, my research intern and I performed a simple experiment. We selected 100 terms from prominent U.S. and world history textbooks (Prentice Hall\u2019s America: Pathways to the Present and World History: Connections to Today\u2014The Modern Era<\/span><\/em>). We chose a mix of items that students might be asked to research for a test or paper, from the Mayflower Compact to the War Powers Act, from the Protestant Reformation to Anwar Sadat. And we entered each term into Google to find out which web sites the ubiquitous search engine suggests as the most useful links.<\/p>\n

The results are astounding. Google listed Wikipedia as the number-one hit a remarkable 87 times out of 100. The encyclopedia came in second 12 times and third once. In other words, the Wikipedia site was listed among the top three Google hits 100 percent<\/em> of the time.<\/p>\n

Several conclusions can be drawn from this finding. First, people searching for information about these historical terms are finding the entries from Wikipedia helpful; that\u2019s why Google is listing them so prominently. As a result, even if students do not seek out Wikipedia, Wikipedia will find them. Second, \u201cbanning\u201d the use of Wikipedia appears hopelessly naive. As Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia\u2019s co-founder, told the New York Times<\/em>, \u201cThey might as well say don\u2019t listen to rock \u2019n\u2019 roll either.\u201d (Blocking Wikipedia isn\u2019t so hard; some older \u201cchild-safe\u201d Internet filters block the entire site because of its occasional objectionable pages.) But are students likely to find good information once they reach the site? We randomly selected 10 of our 100 terms and compared the treatment given to them by Wikipedia, the Encyclopaedia Britannica<\/em>, and the textbooks themselves. The entries from Wikipedia sure are comprehensive, or at least verbose. At more than 3,000 words, the Wikipedia write-ups are more than twice as long, on average, as those of Britannica<\/em>, and almost eight times as long as the passages from the textbooks.<\/p>\n

And, to our admittedly untrained eyes, the information from Wikipedia appeared just as reliable. (A 2006 Nature<\/em> article found roughly the same number of errors in entries from the two encyclopedias on various scientific topics, so our \u201cfindings\u201d are consistent.) We certainly didn\u2019t notice any discrepancies. (See below for a list of the ten terms if you\u2019d like to test them yourself.)<\/p>\n

The reason the content is relatively reliable is probably because these terms are fairly mainstream. \u201cThe high-traffic areas are going to be the cleanest,\u201d Wiki expert Alexander M. C. Halavais told the Chronicle of Higher Education<\/span>. Thus high-school level content is likely to be less error-prone than arcane subjects studied in graduate school.<\/p>\n

As a K\u201312 educational tool, then, Wikipedia appears to pass the test, at least to the limited degree that any encyclopedia assists the learning process. Still, that doesn\u2019t mean the site is perfect. As a resource about hot-button political issues, Wikipedia is notoriously subject to manipulation and spin. This is apparent in its treatment of education policy issues.<\/p>\n

For example, its entry on \u201cschool voucher\u201d (which comes up first on Google) gives twice as much ink to opponents as supporters. Furthermore, it includes spurious and unsupported claims such as this: \u201cOpponents also claim that the vouchers are tantamount to providing taxpayer-subsidized \u2018white flight\u2019 from urban public schools.\u201d (The vast majority of students receiving taxpayer-subsidized vouchers in Milwaukee, Cleveland, and the District of Columbia are, of course, nonwhite.)<\/p>\n

So here\u2019s a rule of thumb: When elementary and secondary students are researching history, Wikipedia is a decent place to start. When they or others are researching education policy, though, tapping another resource is in order. May I suggest www.educationnext.org<\/em>?<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n
The Ten Terms<\/strong><\/caption>\n
World History<\/strong><\/td>\nU.S. History<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
    \n
  • Frederick the Great<\/li>\n
  • Otto von Bismarck<\/li>\n
  • Panama Canal<\/li>\n
  • Konrad Adenauer<\/li>\n
  • Taliban<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n
\n
    \n
  • Fourteenth Amendment<\/li>\n
  • Roosevelt Corollary<\/li>\n
  • Dust Bowl<\/li>\n
  • Taft-Hartley Act<\/li>\n
  • War Powers Act<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    [\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Assessing the online encyclopedia\u2019s impact on K\u201312 education<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2078,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"single-old-template.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7796,432],"tags":[],"coauthors":[7842],"class_list":["post-49696452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vol-08-no-02","category-what-next"],"acf":[],"featured_image_url":"","first_category":"Vol. 8, No. 2","author_name":"Michael J. Petrilli","yoast_head":"\nWikipedia or Wickedpedia? - Education Next<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/wikipedia-or-wickedpedia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wikipedia or Wickedpedia? - Education Next\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Assessing the online encyclopedia\u2019s impact on K\u201312 education\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/wikipedia-or-wickedpedia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Education Next\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/EducationNextJournal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-02-29T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-01-12T16:49:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Michael J. Petrilli\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@EducationNext\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@EducationNext\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Michael J. Petrilli\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.educationnext.org\\\/wikipedia-or-wickedpedia\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.educationnext.org\\\/wikipedia-or-wickedpedia\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Michael J. Petrilli\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.educationnext.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a3e65857c3d19fecfa3ba97fca4a3b7e\"},\"headline\":\"Wikipedia or Wickedpedia?\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-02-29T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-01-12T16:49:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.educationnext.org\\\/wikipedia-or-wickedpedia\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":790,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.educationnext.org\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Vol. 8, No. 2\",\"What Next\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.educationnext.org\\\/wikipedia-or-wickedpedia\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.educationnext.org\\\/wikipedia-or-wickedpedia\\\/\",\"name\":\"Wikipedia or Wickedpedia? - Education Next\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.educationnext.org\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2008-02-29T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-01-12T16:49:48+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.educationnext.org\\\/wikipedia-or-wickedpedia\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.educationnext.org\\\/wikipedia-or-wickedpedia\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.educationnext.org\\\/wikipedia-or-wickedpedia\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.educationnext.org\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Wikipedia or Wickedpedia?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.educationnext.org\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.educationnext.org\\\/\",\"name\":\"Education Next\",\"description\":\"A Journal of Opinion and Research About Education Policy\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.educationnext.org\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.educationnext.org\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.educationnext.org\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Education Next\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.educationnext.org\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.educationnext.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.educationnext.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/06\\\/e-logo.png?fit=81%2C79&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.educationnext.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/06\\\/e-logo.png?fit=81%2C79&ssl=1\",\"width\":81,\"height\":79,\"caption\":\"Education Next\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.educationnext.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/EducationNextJournal\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/EducationNext\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/ednextjournal\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pinterest.ca\\\/educationnext\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.educationnext.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a3e65857c3d19fecfa3ba97fca4a3b7e\",\"name\":\"Michael J. Petrilli\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.educationnext.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/02\\\/author_mpetrilli24.jpg655743f8d244f88127b30ef03225d6a0\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.educationnext.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/02\\\/author_mpetrilli24.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.educationnext.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/02\\\/author_mpetrilli24.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Michael J. Petrilli\"},\"description\":\"Michael J. Petrilli is president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, executive editor of Education Next, editor in chief of the Education Gadfly Weekly, host of the Education Gadfly Show podcast, author of the SCHOOLED Substack, and a contributor at Forbes.com. An award-winning writer, he is the author of The Diverse Schools Dilemma, editor of Education for Upward Mobility, and co-editor of How to Educate an American and Follow the Science to School. Petrilli has published opinion pieces in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and the Atlantic, and appears frequently on television and radio. Petrilli helped to create the U.S. Department of Education\u2019s Office of Innovation and Improvement and the Policy Innovators in Education Network, and serves on the board of the Association of American Educators Foundation. He lives with his family in Bethesda, Maryland.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.edexcellence.net\\\/flypaper\\\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.educationnext.org\\\/author\\\/mpetrilli\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Wikipedia or Wickedpedia? - Education Next","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/wikipedia-or-wickedpedia\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Wikipedia or Wickedpedia? - Education Next","og_description":"Assessing the online encyclopedia\u2019s impact on K\u201312 education","og_url":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/wikipedia-or-wickedpedia\/","og_site_name":"Education Next","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/EducationNextJournal","article_published_time":"2008-02-29T00:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-01-12T16:49:48+00:00","author":"Michael J. Petrilli","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@EducationNext","twitter_site":"@EducationNext","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Michael J. Petrilli","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/wikipedia-or-wickedpedia\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/wikipedia-or-wickedpedia\/"},"author":{"name":"Michael J. Petrilli","@id":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/#\/schema\/person\/a3e65857c3d19fecfa3ba97fca4a3b7e"},"headline":"Wikipedia or Wickedpedia?","datePublished":"2008-02-29T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2024-01-12T16:49:48+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/wikipedia-or-wickedpedia\/"},"wordCount":790,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Vol. 8, No. 2","What Next"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/wikipedia-or-wickedpedia\/","url":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/wikipedia-or-wickedpedia\/","name":"Wikipedia or Wickedpedia? - Education Next","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-02-29T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2024-01-12T16:49:48+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/wikipedia-or-wickedpedia\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/wikipedia-or-wickedpedia\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/wikipedia-or-wickedpedia\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Wikipedia or Wickedpedia?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/","name":"Education Next","description":"A Journal of Opinion and Research About Education Policy","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/#organization","name":"Education Next","url":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.educationnext.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/e-logo.png?fit=81%2C79&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.educationnext.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/e-logo.png?fit=81%2C79&ssl=1","width":81,"height":79,"caption":"Education Next"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/EducationNextJournal","https:\/\/x.com\/EducationNext","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ednextjournal","https:\/\/www.pinterest.ca\/educationnext"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/#\/schema\/person\/a3e65857c3d19fecfa3ba97fca4a3b7e","name":"Michael J. Petrilli","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/author_mpetrilli24.jpg655743f8d244f88127b30ef03225d6a0","url":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/author_mpetrilli24.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/author_mpetrilli24.jpg","caption":"Michael J. Petrilli"},"description":"Michael J. Petrilli is president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, executive editor of Education Next, editor in chief of the Education Gadfly Weekly, host of the Education Gadfly Show podcast, author of the SCHOOLED Substack, and a contributor at Forbes.com. An award-winning writer, he is the author of The Diverse Schools Dilemma, editor of Education for Upward Mobility, and co-editor of How to Educate an American and Follow the Science to School. Petrilli has published opinion pieces in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and the Atlantic, and appears frequently on television and radio. Petrilli helped to create the U.S. Department of Education\u2019s Office of Innovation and Improvement and the Policy Innovators in Education Network, and serves on the board of the Association of American Educators Foundation. He lives with his family in Bethesda, Maryland.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.edexcellence.net\/flypaper\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/author\/mpetrilli\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49696452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2078"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49696452"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49696452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49717717,"href":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49696452\/revisions\/49717717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49696452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49696452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49696452"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=49696452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}