One of our favorite websites, Inside Higher Ed, reports on the decision of Middlebury’s History Department to ban students from citing Wikipedia in their research.
As educators, we are in the business of reducing the dissemination of misinformation, said Don Wyatt, chair of the department. Even though Wikipedia may have some value, particularly from the value of leading students to citable sources, it is not itself an appropriate source for citation,he said.
Wikipedia has spurred an ongoing debate on the value of its research. Recently, CNET reported Wikipedia was as accurate as Encyclopedia Britannica. Other studies have concluded the same. Wikipedia has grown right along YouTube and MySpace with the enormous rise of “user-generated-content”. While Wikipedia may not be winning the hearts of academics, its crushing Encyclopedia Britannica on the web.
