The presentation I did attend on ed tech talk.com was “Ten years of Wikipedia”. The two presenters were John Schinker and Dave Cormier. The presenters basically talked about how far Wikipedia has improved over the past ten years. Many people may think of Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that is a reliable source of information. However, that is not always the case. Wikipedia was created for everyday people to build an encyclopedia with information they have researched.
Schinker and Cormier discussed both the arguments for and against Wikipedia. People, who favor Wikipedia, like that people with regular careers or students, have access to writing and editing information about a specific topic. It also allows updates frequently instead of having to come up with a new edition. People, who are against Wikipedia, argue that people may receive the wrong information and submit it to Wikipedia. They also argue that Wikipedia does not always have appropriate professionals, such as experts in a profession or Doctors that usually write reliable books, articles etc.
During the presentation, I learned some interesting facts about Wikipedia. On average, Wikipedia has 140 million people who edit the site a month. Another interesting fact is Wikipedia is written in 250 different languages. After listening to this presentation, I realize I am more of a supporter for Wikipedia. I would not use it as a reference in a paper; however I support the idea that all people have access to contributing to this online encyclopedia.
I like to think of it like any tool. It is how you use it and what you use it for that makes it a great tool or something useless. We'll be talking about it more over the course of the course... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFBDn5PiL00
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