Last Tuesdays technology class was very interesting to me. The second half of the class centered around Wikipedia & the use of the web as a classroom resource. So now I am in the process of trying to put my own entry onto the Wikipedia site. (It's much harder than I thought)
I will confess two items that gave me initial concerns about Wikipedia. #1. The first time I came across "Wiki" I don't actually remember much about it. I don't even remember what I was looking for...searching for information on some obscure part of a country most likely. At any rate, I remember that I saw this odd looking site that struck me as being something some college kids had whipped together. Actually, I will admit that I thought it looked rather comical. I recall that I saw this site again and again over time, and that when I would go back days or weeks later various aspects of information from the very same site had changed. I thought, "Well, what the heck is going on? Where did that info go that I had been looking at?" #2. The second time I heard about Wikipedia was through "The Onion," the satirical news magazine. It did not leave me with a positive impression.
I suppose that my main concern about using a site like this for information remains the same as my initial concern...although lessened considerably. How can anyone be sure that the information present is truly accurate? The idea that there are thousands of editors checking & re-checking information is great. However, say one of my students is doing research and he happens upon information that an editors has simply NOT gotten to yet. Oops!
Now my thought is as always, and as I would assume any teacher would second, that students have to use a variety of sources for any type of research....just like they always did. Problem solved. Ta da!
As far as my project is concerned, here is my goal: (We'll see if I can really pull it off. If I do, then I will simply edit this present portion of the blog.)
As far as my extremely biased opinion is concerned, there are only two places in the Twin Cities to get any truly excellent pizza; Cosseta's in St. Paul & Fat Lorenzo's in Minneapolis. Every other pizza place is second rate. (And let's not even sully the conversation by commenting on Chain pizza parlours) Well, Fat Lorenzo's is close to where I live and will even deliver to me even though I am 4 blocks out of range. (It pays to be a valued customer) I am going to put information about Fat Lorenzo's in Wikipedia. I took pictures of the outside this weekend. Hopefully I can get some inside shots as well. I will make one mistake about the restaurant. I will count the days to see how long it takes some editor to make a change on this Wiki spot. It's probably not all that fair, since it will be an obscure entry, but what the heck. Give it the old "College try," huh? Also, IF I CAN figure out how to do it, I will include a link to the spot for any fellow classmates to pop over and guest edit. Wish me luck.
No comments:
Post a Comment