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Think Wikipedia Isn’t Useful to Students? Think Again

1 Comment Posted by @k_ferrell on June 18, 2012

Here’s a nice infographic showing facts and information about Wikipedia. A couple of things really caught my attention:

8 out of 10 students turn to Wikipedia for their first source of research.
Fewer teachers are banning Wikipedia from being used for research.
56% of students will halt research if little information is found on Wikipedia.

As educators, we need to help students become better researchers, showing them that while Wikipedia is a resource, it is not the end-all-be-all and should be thought of as such. Most teachers require several sources to be used while doing research and Wikipedia is the king of citing other sources at the bottom of every page. This makes Wikipedia a great starting point for any research, not an ending point.

Via: Open-Site.org

Internet Research infographic, research, Wikipedia

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One response to “Think Wikipedia Isn’t Useful to Students? Think Again”

danicamarble June 29, 2012 at 7:37 am
Completely agree…as I give students tasks involving research, I suggest they start there and get a working knowledge of the terms, ideas, and events surrounding their topic, and then explore what tradition research states, but wikipedia gives them the starting point.

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