Of growing concern to most parents under the current threat of recession are their child’s final term exams looming in the next few months and the success thereof. Acurate information for students is vital and according to many local mums their kids are doing quick fix researches on the internet’s well known Wikipedia website.
Wikipedia is not a Bible and before using or quoting from it, particularly students, first read Wikipedias own disclaimer. According to Wikipedia itself, it is not necessarily an acurate or fast guide to the facts.
Wiki means “anyone”, including you, can alter any article anytime by clicking the “edit this page” link above every Wikipedia article.” While there is a great deal of useful information on the website, the Wiki disclaimer openly states that there is noone behind the scenes checking the acuracy of texts or the qualifications or motivation of it’s contributors.
Whilst many of us use it and find both helpful information along with many inacuracies, it is not everyone that has a commitment or a vested interest in altering or contributing to the project. This in itself is a good lesson for budding academics and students researchers in reading the fine print of any document one may like to put their name to.
Excerpt from the Wiki disclaimer.
Wikipedia:General disclaimer
Wikipedia is an online open-content collaborative encyclopedia, that is, a voluntary association of individuals and groups working to develop a common resource of human knowledge. The structure of the project allows anyone with an Internet connection to alter its content. Please be advised that nothing found here has necessarily been reviewed by people with the expertise required to provide you with complete, acurate or reliable information………..
……..Wikipedia cannot guarantee the validity of the information found here. The content of any given article may recently have been changed, vandalized or altered by someone whose opinion does not correspond with the state of knowledge in the relevant fields……………
……….None of the contributors, sponsors, administrators, or anyone else connected with Wikipedia in any way whatsoever can be responsible for the appearance of any inaccurate or libelous information or for your use of the information contained in or linked from these web pages……………..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:General_disclaimer
Categories: GENERAL News
Coober Pedy Regional Times 
As a school teacher, I couldn’t agree more that by Wiki’s own admission, it is full of misleading information.
With the wide use of classroom computers it’s quite concerning that students are logging onto Tricky Wiki hoping to find information often cited even from tabloid newspapers.
If mums reading would like to look on the wiki pages their kids are viewing they will notice that articles have a rating. A, B, C, etc. With the rating comes the reason for the rating. It would be a suggestion for the Wiki people to make the rating quite a bit larger so that students or anyone for that matter can see that certain entries (all allowable) are actually questionable. Although anything goes on wiki according to it’s creator.
Living in a predominantly indigenous region, it was quite concerning for children to read up on nearby areas only to find someone had defaced Wiki’s attempt at encouraging a helpful guide as to what features one may find in individuals towns and how they compare and interact with each other.
The only amusing feature in our research of local towns on the Wiki blog, was the laugh we had in the staff room over an allowable quote from a once respected newspaper, well known to have taken a slide downhill many years ago. The poor author’s attempt at “IT WAS IN THE NEWSPAPER, IT MUST BE TRUE”, caused shrieks of laughter from the staff. Hardly an educational reference for students or a guide to reality.
It’s unfortunate, but we’ve placed poor old Wiki on the banned sites list of ‘misinformation’. After reading the above article, it makes one wonder what the purpose of it is other than the brain child of a possible egomaniac. An idea which simply satisfies the site holders thirst for a healthy stat counter. Wiki has an open door for preditors who see a forum to “not so cleverly” air his or her personal views. This is not healthy reference material for our children. It puts educators in danger of creating a generation of theoretical nuisances to society.
There is nothing like real interaction and basic fact finding exercises with students to uncover the reality of their own back yard. In an age where reconcilliation is being encouraged it isn’t any wonder that Wiki is losing its appeal. Get the kids off the computer and take them on excursions to visit those nearby places.
Sorry Wiki, but you are becoming a tacky blog despite your clever disclaimer. Can’t see your point.