The founder of the Wikipedia online encyclopaedia criticised the Education Secretary yesterday for suggesting that the website could be a good educational tool for children.
Article: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/searc...icle1637535.ece
The founder of the Wikipedia online encyclopaedia criticised the Education Secretary yesterday for suggesting that the website could be a good educational tool for children.
Article: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/searc...icle1637535.ece
Article: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/searc...icle1637535.ece
Includes rebuttals in the comments section by David Gerard and Fred Bauder. Gerard's comment is unremarkable. Bauder's is deluded:
"Used appropriately, Wikipedia is an engine for learning. Nothing that happens in a school approaches the intense experience of editing on Wikipedia with others about subjects you are learning. Feedback is nearly instant, with constant demands that any assertion be justified by reference to a reliable source. To foreclose use of and editing of Wikipedia by students is to block off a very valuable resource. Citizendium is a competing effort and may eventually amount to something."
It parodies itself. I liked the ending, which tries to pooh-pooh Citizendium in a cool and off-hand way.
"Used appropriately, Wikipedia is an engine for learning. Nothing that happens in a school approaches the intense experience of editing on Wikipedia with others about subjects you are learning. Feedback is nearly instant, with constant demands that any assertion be justified by reference to a reliable source. To foreclose use of and editing of Wikipedia by students is to block off a very valuable resource. Citizendium is a competing effort and may eventually amount to something."
It parodies itself. I liked the ending, which tries to pooh-pooh Citizendium in a cool and off-hand way.
Remember the time a group of schoolchildren tried to edit Wikipedia and got slapped down for trying to use it as a web host?
QUOTE(Ashley Pomeroy @ Thu 12th April 2007, 12:23pm) 
Includes rebuttals in the comments section by David Gerard and Fred Bauder. Gerard's comment is unremarkable. Bauder's is deluded:
"Used appropriately, Wikipedia is an engine for learning. Nothing that happens in a school approaches the intense experience of editing on Wikipedia with others about subjects you are learning. Feedback is nearly instant, with constant demands that any assertion be justified by reference to a reliable source. To foreclose use of and editing of Wikipedia by students is to block off a very valuable resource. Citizendium is a competing effort and may eventually amount to something."
It parodies itself. I liked the ending, which tries to pooh-pooh Citizendium in a cool and off-hand way.
Fred Bauder = Kool-aid chugger extraordinaire.
QUOTE(Cedric @ Fri 13th April 2007, 2:32am)
QUOTE(Ashley Pomeroy @ Thu 12th April 2007, 12:23pm)
Includes rebuttals in the comments section by David Gerard and Fred Bauder. Gerard's comment is unremarkable. Bauder's is deluded:
"Used appropriately, Wikipedia is an engine for learning. Nothing that happens in a school approaches the intense experience of editing on Wikipedia with others about subjects you are learning. Feedback is nearly instant, with constant demands that any assertion be justified by reference to a reliable source. To foreclose use of and editing of Wikipedia by students is to block off a very valuable resource. Citizendium is a competing effort and may eventually amount to something."
It parodies itself. I liked the ending, which tries to pooh-pooh Citizendium in a cool and off-hand way.
Fred Bauder = Kool-aid chugger extraordinaire.
I actually agree with Fred Bauder, although in a fashion. Kids editing Wikipedia learn a lot from interacting with other kids editing Wikipedia, but that is also a major reason why Wikipedia is so unreliable, because kids are editing and fighting over it. The kids are learning from the experience though. Citizendium on the other hand contains correct information written by experts, thus it won't be that much fun for kids to edit, but it serves a different purpose, it is storehouse of properly weighted and presented information, not a virtual reality game that doubles as an encyclopedia. Wikipedia and Citizendium can co-exist. I do not expect Citizendium will ever rival Wikipedia's coverage of popular culture topics, but I also do not expect Wikipedia to rival Citizendium's coverage of complex and controversial subjects.
Citizendium just approved the article on Life (link goes to Citizendium), and it is really great. It was done very efficiently via cooperation between mature adults and not once did they have to revert playful vandalism. Another great article on Citizendium is Infant colic. Neither of these two Citizendium articles are Wikipedia-derivatives, they are for the large majority original work by Citizendium contributors.
QUOTE(anon1234 @ Thu 12th April 2007, 7:38pm)
Citizendium just approved the article on Life (link goes to Citizendium), and it is really great. It was done very efficiently via cooperation between mature adults and not once did they have to revert playful vandalism. Another great article on Citizendium is Infant colic. Neither of these two Citizendium articles are Wikipedia-derivatives, they are for the large majority original work by Citizendium contributors.
I looked at the article on Citizendium, and it looks good. The only problem I see regards how the citations seem to mess up spacing a bit, a peeve I had with Wikipedia besides. I've applied for an account myself now on Citizendium.
"Nothing that happens in a school approaches the intense experience of editing on Wikipedia with others about subjects you are learning."
On reflection, I can think of several intense experiences I had in school that were more intense than the most intense experiences I have had on Wikipedia (which have not been very intense). I assume Fred Bauder's youth was rather empty.
On reflection, I can think of several intense experiences I had in school that were more intense than the most intense experiences I have had on Wikipedia (which have not been very intense). I assume Fred Bauder's youth was rather empty.
QUOTE(Ashley Pomeroy @ Fri 13th April 2007, 6:30pm)
I assume Fred Bauder's youth was rather empty.
Well, you knew I wasn't going to say anything...
I wonder what kids really do on Wikipedia, most of the time? If their parents have blocking software enabled, I'd bet they're in there exploiting the fact that most blocking software doesn't treat Wikipedia as a "dangerous" site, and using it to look at porn.
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