If you look up the general capabilities in the Australian Curriculum, you will find “ critical and creative thinking” encourages deep, broad reflection. Still, some teachers are horrified by the idea students need to be taught to assess information quickly and superficially. Deep research needs to come later, once the validity of the source has been established. But this is not best practice for conducting initial investigation into a subject online. This argument supposes all fact-checking must involve deep engagement. Many teachers also argue the information on Wikipedia is too basic, particularly for tertiary students. To use Wikipedia effectively, school students need to be taught to find and analyse these pages of an article, so they can quickly assess the article’s reliability. Disputes between editors about the article’s content are documented in its “ talk” page. All modifications to an article are archived in its “ history” page. But it’s easy to find out how an article has been created and modified on Wikipedia. Less frequently edited articles on Wikipedia might be less reliable than popular ones. Traditional academic articles – the most common source of scientific evidence – are typically only peer-reviewed by up to three people and then never edited again. It’s virtually impossible, for instance, for conspiracies to remain published on Wikipedia. But this doesn’t make Wikipedia’s information unreliable. Many teachers point out that anyone can edit a Wikipedia page, not just experts on the subject. At a time when it’s increasingly difficult to separate truth from falsehood, Wikipedia is an accessible tool for fact-checking and fighting misinformation. Wikipedia is free, non-profit, and has been operating for over two decades, making it an internet success story. This means all information “must be presented accurately and without bias” sources must come from a third party and a Wikipedia article is notable and should be created if there has been “third-party coverage of the topic in reliable sources”. Wikipedia has community-enforced policies on neutrality, reliability and notability. So why do teachers almost universally distrust it? Wikipedia offers free and reliable information instantly. At the start of each university year, we ask first-year students a question: how many have been told by their secondary teachers not to use Wikipedia? Without fail, nearly every hand shoots up.
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