February 13, 2007

But PROFESSOR, If It's On The Internet, It MUST Be True!

Middlebury College's history department bans cites to Wikipedia:

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. (AP) - Middlebury College history students are no longer allowed to use Wikipedia in preparing class papers. The school's history department recently adopted a policy that says it's OK to consult the popular online encyclopedia, but that it can't be cited as an authoritative source by students.

The policy says, in part, "Wikipedia is not an acceptable citation, even though it may lead one to a citable source."

History professor Neil Waters says Wikipedia is an ideal place to start research but an unacceptable way to end it.

I think this is right, but I'm a bit alarmed that stoodents apparently had been allowed to use such citations previously. Is this a widespread practice these days?

Posted by Robert at February 13, 2007 01:49 PM | TrackBack
Comments

I'm sure it is. Much easier than actually going and researching things yourself. Perhaps Middlebury didn't realize this was happening before. Props to them for doing this.

I'll use Wikipedia to get a sense of an idea of what something is about, but relying on it as authoritative is insane.

Posted by: rbj at February 13, 2007 04:17 PM

Is it ever! Many college students have no idea what citations are. A typical first approach for a paper on say St. Augustine might be to type StAugustine.com in the address bar. Wikipedia is actually a high level research tool in comparison.

Posted by: Rachel at February 13, 2007 05:23 PM

We have banned students from citing Wikipedia for as long as I've been around the department. Frankly, I'm surprised it has taken them this long.

Posted by: Misspent at February 13, 2007 11:26 PM