I found myself in a rather precarious position the other day when one of my students wrote a paper where the bulk of her information came from the popular Wikipedia website. I had thought I made it clear that I did not believe wikis qualify as credible sources of information. I think these sources are incredible experiments in collaborative information sharing, but for an academic paper they hold little quality as a source of good standing.

When I explained my reasons for not wanting her to use wikis as sources I was surprised to find that she was not aware of what wikis were, as well as being surprised at my own refusal of her sources. She went on to explain that she had been using wikis in all her other papers and she had not issues with any of her other teachers. I didn’t respond directly to what I thought her other teachers thought about wikis, but I did remind her that what she did in other classes was none of my business, but what she did in mine was.

I use this person as an example because of the massive amounts of information she gathered from Wikipedia. I am concerned that she has been using a lot of information from wikis in her other classes, and may continue to use these as credible sources until other instructors catch on about wikis and the impact they have on students academic papers.

Not a big fan of the wiki. I'm part of the antiwikiestablishmentism movemnet. We've got jackets.