Wikipedia as a Tool for Introducing Social Implications into Science Education
Authors | Tamar Groves Carlos G. Figuerola José-Luis Alonso-Berrocal Miguel-A. Quintanilla |
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Publication date | 2013 |
Links | Original |
Wikipedia as a Tool for Introducing Social Implications into Science Education - scientific work related to Wikipedia quality published in 2013, written by Tamar Groves, Carlos G. Figuerola, José-Luis Alonso-Berrocal and Miguel-A. Quintanilla.
Overview
Whether authors like it or not there is mounting evidence that Wikipedia is becoming a main source for scientific information. In fact for students on all levels Wikipedia is the first stop for investigating any topic. Its accessibility, vast content and dynamic character make it an easy and updated source of information. Although there are few scholars that criticize its reliability, most research validates its epistemic qualities. More important it is regularly included in the 10 most visited cites demonstrating its importance as a source of knowledge. However, authors know very little of the nature of science transmitted by Wikipedia. As a result authors believe that there is an urgent need to understand better the character of Wikipedia´s scientific contents. In this paper authors present the preliminary results of attempt to characterize scientific knowledge on the Spanish Wikipedia. Authors analysis consists of two stages designed to carry out the above mentioned tasks: Identifying scientific and technological content and highlighting the relationships among its components. Comparing results with similar procedures carried out on school textbooks, suggests that there is a significant difference between scientific culture in traditional educational aids and on the Web. Scientific content in textbooks is characterized by a traditional disciplinary division, in spite of efforts to integrate interdisciplinary approaches and significant social contexts. On Wikipedia on the other hand it seems that the distribution of scientific contents does not depend solely on traditional academic disciplines but also on current social concerns. Authors believe thus that the popularity of Wikipedia is can contribute to changing the nature of scientific content available to students.
