Schools Wikipedia Science

[Andrew Cates]

Sorry to post this about a resource I developed but I would really like feedback on the Schools Wikipedia (which is checked content from Wikipedia from our UK Children's charity). I am a mathematician not a scientist but the science section here is huge and can be freely copied (the whole 20 million word encyclopaedia can be put on a school intranet for free).

Any comments on what we should be doing to improve it?

Thanks

Andrew Cates

Edited October 15, 2008 by Andrew Cates

[John Simkin]

Sorry to post this about a resource I developed but I would really like feedback on the Schools Wikipedia (which is checked content from Wikipedia from our UK Children's charity). I am a mathematician not a scientist but the science section here is huge and can be freely copied (the whole 20 million word encyclopaedia can be put on a school intranet for free).

Any comments on what we should be doing to improve it?

The idea of downloading the encyclopaedia onto a school intranet for free will be an attractive proposition for most teachers. However, there are certain problems with using Wikipedia in the classroom.

The quality of the articles in Wikipedia vary a great deal. Nor do they include the name of the author/s. Most teachers are of the opinion that all educational materials should be written by people with experience of classroom teaching. Most teachers do not allow students to use Wikipedia as a source when writing essays.

The reading age of most articles in Wikipedia is 16+. Most students in schools will find this material too difficult.

Textbooks, worksheets, etc. are produced with certain educational objectives in mind. This is reflected by the inclusion of questions, activities, etc. This is of course not true of Wikipedia and therefore it is much more difficult to use in the classroom.