Wikipedia - To trust or not to trust?

Wikipedia is an online encyclopaedia in which anyone can contribute. Wikipedia has rules and guidelines and is monitored to keep information accurate. Only six years ago when i started my journey to becoming a teacher, I was implicitly told by lecturers that we were NOT to use Wikipedia as reference tool as it was highly unreliable. Oh how times have changed in only six years. Wikipedia is a great place for students to go to gain valuable and reliable information at the click of a button. I found when I completed my search for nutrition on Wikipedia the list of resources was endless. From a food balance wheel to related topics, and external links to associated websites such as Diet, nutrition and the prevention of chronic disease. There was also a link to databases on recipe nutrition. This would be something I would incorporate into my lesson on developing a health menu. Students would be able to look up nutrition on Wikipedia and have a look around at what they think the important issues relating to nutrition and the development of their menu are. Wikipedia would be a starting point for students to research the topic and they would then need to corroborate this information with another source.  Pearce and Bass (2008) state "Using Wikipedia for learning activities offers teachers and students the opportunity to illustrate how well they understand a given topic and how to go about 'knowing' the difference.'


References:

Pearce, J. & Bass, G.  (2008).  Technology toolkits: Introducing you to Web 2.0.  Victoria, Australia:  Nelson Cengage learning.