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Teaching with W ikipedia in a 21 st ‐century classroom: Perceptions of W ikipedia and its educational benefits
Author(s) -
Konieczny Piotr
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of the association for information science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.903
H-Index - 145
eISSN - 2330-1643
pISSN - 2330-1635
DOI - 10.1002/asi.23616
Subject(s) - variety (cybernetics) , perception , argument (complex analysis) , quality (philosophy) , psychology , medical education , pedagogy , mathematics education , computer science , medicine , epistemology , philosophy , neuroscience , artificial intelligence
This article explores the current perception of W ikipedia in academia, focusing on both the reasons for its unpopularity among some and the reasons for its growing acceptance among others. First, the reasons that W ikipedia is still struggling to gain acceptance among many academics and higher education professionals are identified. These include common misconceptions about W ikipedia, doubts about its quality, uneasiness with the challenge that it poses to the traditional peer‐review system, and a lack of career‐enhancing motivations related to using W ikipedia. Second, the benefits of teaching with W ikipedia for educators, students, and the wider society, as discussed in the current teaching literature, are explored. Finally, the article presents an argument for using Wikipedia in a variety of ways to help students develop critical and academic writing skills.