Paper

Sleeping with the Enemy: Wikipedia in the College Classroom

Cullen J, Chandler and Alison S, Gregory

Lycoming College

IN THE COLLEGE CLASSROOM?

Are you seri-

ous?"

"Yes, quite," "But hasn't Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, discouraged college students from using this free online encyclopedia, saying, 'For God sake, you're in college; don't cite the encyclopedia'?"' "Yes, but,,," Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia that is written and edited solely by volunteers who have no qualifying credentials save an Intemet connection. With over 3.1 million articles in English, Wikipedia is indeed a formidable reference web site,^ From a research standpoint, Wikipedia is both the sinner and the saint: because anyone can make changes to content, Wikipedia lacks scholarly backbone in the form of subject experts and a referee process, but there is strength in its continual updating, allowing new information to be added very quickly instead of taking years to be added to a traditional print encyclopedia.^ While it certainly should not be the one and only source for undergraduate research, Wikipedia may have appropriate uses in the college classroom. If there are no editors or peer referees, where is the quality control in Wikipedia? Some will argue that if enough Wikipedians are working on

The History Teacher Volume 43 Number 2 February 2010 ©Cullen J, Chandler and Alison S, Gregory

248

CuUen J. Chandler and Alison S. Gregory

and watching a given article, surely they will catch any errors. Print encyclopedias go through rigorous professional editing and review—surely they must be inherently more accurate! Not necessarily. According to a 2005 study done by Nature, Wikipedia cotitains only slightly more inaccuracies in science-related topics than does Encyclopaedia Britannica.'^ Wikipedia averaged four inaccuracies per entry, wliile Britannica had three; in terms of serious errors (i.e., misinterpretations of important concepts) the encyclopedias each weighed in...