Module Code: FC501 2T (SS1)
Class/Group: Group B
Module Title: Skills for Study 1
Assessment: Final Essay
Assignment Title: To what extent is Wikipedia beneficial for students' research?
Tutor Name: Janice Bain
Student ID Number: 2060741 代写pape
Date of Submission: March 21th, 2013

What extent is Wikipedia beneficial for students' research?

Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia project that is based on the network and collaborated by global volunteers which also have significant influence on the wiki technology (Rand, 2010: 7). All the contents in Wikipedia are open, which are compiled by volunteers in a Wiki style (Hasan & Heather, 2012: 11). Articles in it can be renewed by anyone continuously. As of Oct. 2008, the English version of Wikipedia had had over 2.6 million entries, and the versions with 250 kinds of languages had had over ten million entries, which has exceeded any encyclopedia complied in the human history (Noveck & Beth Simone, 2007: 19-21).

Although Wikipedia's explosive growth makes it become the first choice for the students to acquire the information, many scholars such as Leuf and Cunningham (2001) state that open content leads to the uncertainty of Wikipedia articles. As the result they suggest that students should not use Wikipedia. In fact, students have not reduced their access to Wikipedia although it has a lot of disadvantages (Black et al, 2007), because the positive characteristics of Wikipedia make itself become the first choice for information consulting, because of its simple interface, convenience, and easy to find the useful information(Raman, 2004: 299-310). In addition, for some information that is difficult to search, its original reliable reference sources can be rapidly found through the internal and external links of articles in Wikipedia. Therefore, this essay will argue that despite the fact that Wikipedia has numerous disadvantages, it likewise affects positively on students' research.

To use the articles from the workpiece as the references is disregarded by many scholars, because articles can be freely edited by editors in the Internet without responsibility. Normally, students couldn't use Wikipedia articles as the references, while they can use it to be a start point for their research. Since there are so many editors in many countries help Wikipedia to enrich its scope, Wikipedia can coverage many themes, 代写papeprovide super links for students to get the related materials. Students can use Wikipedia to get information when there are slight materials in their native language.
The Wikipedia website is convenient to use because of its easy to use search mechanism and each article provides links cross reference(Parker, 1996). In addition, Wikipedia tends to list "Reference" in the bottom of each article. All these references constitute the contents of the information in the Wikipedia article. The students can acquire the original literature from the library so that they can read and cite them subsequently (Parker, 1996: 178-184). Articles in Wikipedia tend to contain many links of newspaper articles, books with ISBN number, radio programs, television programs, and network resources. These primary sources, which are regarded as the subsequent literature of Wikipedia, provide references for in-depth research. Owing to these convenient features, Wikipedia can be regarded as the start point of study and research rather than regard the articles in Wikipedia as truth. Through the internal and external links, keywords, and references of articles in Wikipedia, we can rapidly grasp the background information of a topic to make preparation for in-depth research (Leuf & Cunningham, 2001). Besides, Wikipedia has the table symbol that directs to the top of the checked article. Each article has its own forum.代写pape

It cannot be denied that as some articles in Wikipedia are easily edited in some malicious ways, they can be inevitably neglected and omitted. Therefore, it cannot be regarded as a trustworthy source. However, we should be aware that Wikipedia is an omnipresent acquisition path and the rapid increase of its access is a fact. Therefore, Wikipedia can be regarded as a start point of research to swiftly grasp the background information of a topic. It can be regarded as a learning opportunity to let students find some inaccurate and revise them according to their respective knowledge. In this way, everyone can be encouraged to discuss the authority and authenticity of Wikipedia citation and critically interpret the Wikipedia information. We can utilize plentiful library resources in Wikipedia, improve its utilization rate, and make full use of its reasonability and effectiveness to make it useful in more realms. (Naomi Augar et al, 2004).

There are also some drawbacks for students using Wikipedia, one problem is that Wikipedia articles dosen't have many videos and audio materials, for it is not easy for editors to update. Lack of these kinds of vivid materials, for some abstruse subject, students will find it is not easy to understand only from the word materials. Another problem is that there are many unfinished articles inside Wikipeida, it will also confuse the students when they want to use Wikipedia as a start point for doing their research.

References:

Angela Doucet Rand (2010): Mediating at the Student-Wikipedia Intersection, Journal of
Library Administration, 50: 7-8
 
Leuf, B. Cunningham, W. (2001). Wiki way, The collaboration and sharing on the Internet. Addison-Wesley, Boston.

Parker, J. A. (1996). Collaboration using internet for the development of case-based teaching files: report of the computer and instrumentation council internet focus group. J. Nucl. Med. 37(1), 178-184

Raman, B. (2004). Radiology on handheld devices: image display, manipulation, and PAC integration issues. Radiographic 24(1), 299-310

Hasan, Heather. (2012). Wikipedia, 3.5 million articles and counting, Rosen Publishing, p.11

Noveck, Beth Simone. (2007). Wikipedia and the Future of Legal Education, Journal of Legal Education 57 (1), 19-21

Black, Peter; Delaney, Hayden; Fitzgerald, Brian. (2007). Legal Issues for Wikis: The Challenge of User-generated and Peer-produced Knowledge, Content and Culture.

Naomi Augar, Ruth Raitman and Wanlei Zhou. (2004). Teaching and learning online with wikis, Beyond the comfort zone