What makes Wikipedia so detested by teachers? originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.
Answer by Richard Muller, Professor of Physics at UC Berkeley, author of Now, The Physics of Time, on Quora:
When I teach at the University of California, students sometimes ask in class where to get more information on a subject I’ve been talking about. I say, “Start with Wikipedia.” And I’ve found that results in a cheer from the class!
Why did they cheer? Because they had been taught in high school never to use Wikipedia. They have been scolded for using Wikipedia. And yet they had discovered that starting with Wikipedia was the best way to research a topic. Finally, from me, they heard someone in a position of authority confirming what they already had determined to be true. They were relieved, and happy.
I am most familiar with physics and with certain aspects of high technology. On the subjects I know best, I’ve found that Wikipedia is amazingly accurate. Not perfect, but a great start.
When I was a student, Wikipedia didn’t exist, and the teachers admonished us never to look up answers in an Encyclopedia. Of course I used encyclopedias! And I learned how to disguise the fact that I did so. Now it is Wikipedia.
Caveat: there is a right and a wrong way to use Wikipedia. The right way is to read it first, to determine what the important issues are and who is involved. The next step, and this is important, is to follow the references given in Wikipedia to go into more detail, and to check the Wikipedia version. Follow the references that are given in those references. You should never reference Wikipedia, except as a general introduction, but the links are important. These are often to published papers or to interviews or articles.
Why is Wikipedia so good? I’m not sure, but part of it is the internal review process started by Jimmy Wales. Other Wikis fail miserably; I no longer look at WikiAnswers, because I rarely get good help from it. So a publicly edited encyclopedia isn’t obviously going to work, but somehow Wikipedia pulled it off.
I met Jimmy Wales once (at Davos, actually), and I asked him whether he was surprised at how well Wikipedia works. He told me that at first he didn’t know it would succeed so well, but pretty early in the process, it became evident that it was going to be very very good.
I take that to mean that Wales figured out what had to be done to maintain quality. A key part is having readers able to mark dubious entries, and managing to put together a superb set of volunteers who can adjudicate issues. Maybe someone helped Wales do this, but I think his creation is one of the great achievements of genius in the last century.
This question originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. More questions:
