When Wikipedia Is Outlawed ...
Meant to link to this from the Times over the weekend: History
Department Bans CitingWikipedia As Research Source.
The fact that such rules are even needed says an awful lot about our educational system. Don't students learn basic research skills anymore? And to top it off, it just bugs me when "research rules" are laid out as strict bans. When I was an undergrad, I had a history professor who had a rule of "nointernet sources." It was a stupid rule and I broke it by citing to academic papers and transcripts of political speeches that I found on various university websites. The point is that students should learn to distinguish between reliable and non-reliable sources. When teachers have to resort to stupid rules, it shows they've failed at teaching students the basic research skills they should have been taught in the first place.
Updated 2/26/07 @ 8:50 PM: I should add that any college student who cites to Wikipedia in an academic paper is a moron. You cite to encyclopedias in third grade, not at an institution of higher learning.
Department Bans CitingWikipedia As Research Source.
The fact that such rules are even needed says an awful lot about our educational system. Don't students learn basic research skills anymore? And to top it off, it just bugs me when "research rules" are laid out as strict bans. When I was an undergrad, I had a history professor who had a rule of "nointernet sources." It was a stupid rule and I broke it by citing to academic papers and transcripts of political speeches that I found on various university websites. The point is that students should learn to distinguish between reliable and non-reliable sources. When teachers have to resort to stupid rules, it shows they've failed at teaching students the basic research skills they should have been taught in the first place.
Updated 2/26/07 @ 8:50 PM: I should add that any college student who cites to Wikipedia in an academic paper is a moron. You cite to encyclopedias in third grade, not at an institution of higher learning.
posted by lonely libertarian at 8:05 PM
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