The issue of the reliability of the information on Wikipedia is constantly debated in my school district. With every and anyone being able to change the content of any Wikipedia entry, how can students be sure that the information is reliable enough to include in their research projects? Richardson asks us to have faith in the community of "watchdogs" who are not only working to add new content but who are on the lookout for potential misuse and misinformation. He believes in the strength of the collective good of many over that of a single individual, "Each entry is the group's best effort, not any one person's." (Richardson, 2010)
In my school we are not quite ready to make the full jump into Wikipedia. In the past, the rule of thumb has been that students cannot use Wikipedia as a primary source for their research. This year however, some teachers have begun to relax on this rule with the stipulation that if students do use Wikipedia they need to verify the information from another primary source. So, perhaps we too will reach Richardson's level of faith in Wikipedia as a good source for student research, we just need a little time to get there.
As more and more classrooms look to a wiki instead of a blog as a potential web 2.0 tool to integrate, Richardson is quick to point out that some services have attempted to meet them halfway with wikis that require a login and password. If I were to integrate a wiki into my curriculum then I would start out with one of these services because as Richardson states, "…it would only take one parent to open the wiki and find something inappropriate to derail the project." (Richardson, 2010) However, I wonder how it would work if parents were also invited to participate and contribute to the project wiki? Maybe the wiki would start out with just the teacher and students working inside the realm, and then invite parents to come in later to mix things up a bit. Something to think about.
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