Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales offered new advice to students and educators at a London conference. The BBC and the Chronicle of Higher Education report that Wales is backing off his previous advice – namely, university students should not use Wikipedia as a reference.
His new advice is somewhat similar to my 24 November article. Wales suggests that Wikipedia is a good “stepping stone” to more authoritative secondary references on topics. Raid the reference list of a good Wikipedia article, but always go beyond that list and do additional reading and research.
As for me, I still don’t want students making direct citations to Wikipedia articles in their assignments.
Tags: authority, education, research, student, university, Wikipedia, writing
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