Mriana told me that Wikipedia is not looked as a reliable source in USA and not accepted as such by college teachers.
In fact, in France, Wikipedia is looked as a reliable source for academic topics, needing to be checked as any other source.
Being retired, I am again a student in ancient history, to get a Master. I succeeded to get my Master 1 and presently I am working on my essay to get my M2.
What the teachers told us is to use Wikipedia, without fully trusting it. Many papers are written and corrected by doctors or doctoral students.
I will not trust Wikipedia about ideological or philosophical topics without heavy checking, but about facts in a scientific matter, I rather would.
Most papers refer to academic sources with footnotes.
Wikipedia isn’t infallible, but it’s a great summary of the information out there.
Besides, it’s always a case of buyer bewares, considering there are plenty of “peer-reviewed” papers out there that are little more than nonsense dressed up in sciencie verbiage, so those aren’t 100% trustworthy either. In short, single sourcing is never good.
Wikipedia offers short summaries and digests and then offers the references so you can do further homework.
I didn’t make A’s on my research papers by not following the professors’ rules and requirements. When all of them said do not use Wickedpedia as a source, because it is not a reliable source, and will dock your grade for citing it as a source, I listened. Now I don’t know anything about French professors and universities, but I know I wouldn’t be getting A’s if I cited an unreliable source, such as Wickedpedia. My suggestion is to find more reliable resources, that are not right-wing propaganda, and post those. This means no Wickedpedia or YouTube sources, but rather something that is at least as scholarly and educational as the History channel, if not better, and also doesn’t lean far-right or far-left with an agenda.
there’s a big difference between blindly looking for stuff that agrees with one’s biases and USING CRITICAL THINKING SKILL TO DISCERN. Most phonies are easy to spot with a little practice.
I don’t blame the professor for saying he’ll deduct anyone who cites Wiki - But why can’t you look at WIKI for an introduction and then do the homework to check out the references for a better understanding of the details, and then cite those directly authoritative sources? I wouldn’t call that cheating, I’d call that learning.
Don’t trust anything on YouTube??? Anything on YouTube?
What about the talks put out by more and more colleges?
https: //confrontingsciencecontrarians .blogspot. com/p/who-says-understanding-earths-evolution. html
January 6, 2016
{1} Our Global Heat and Moisture Distribution Engine
January 9, 2016
{2} Co-evolution of Minerals and Life | Dr Robert Hazen
January 14, 2016
{3} Evolution of Carbon and our biosphere - Professor Hazen focuses on the element Carbon
January 23, 2016
{4} Evolution-Considering Deep Time and a Couple Big Breaks
February 6, 2016
{5a} The Most Beautiful Graph on Earth - A. Hessler
February 7, 2016
{5b} Earth’s Earliest Climate - By Angela Hessler
February 14, 2016
{6} Evolution of Earth’s Atmosphere - easy version
February 18, 2016
{7} Our Global Heat and Moisture Distribution Engine, visualized
Is all information in public libraries reliable? Of course not.
The point is when using any type of library (stored knowledge) is to be selective from among a vast wealth of information both from reliable and unreliable sources.
I don’t blame the professor for saying he’ll deduct anyone who cites Wiki – But why can’t you look at WIKI for an introduction and then do the homework to check out the references for a better understanding of the details, and then cite those directly authoritative sources? I wouldn’t call that cheating, I’d call that learning.
Is the problem looking at it, or is the problem using it as a citation? How can you cite something that might change tomorrow?
The fist public retirement system in western countries was instituted by Otto Von Bismark chancellor of Prussia and or the German empire, to deprive the socialist movement of an argument.
A master of complex politics at home, Bismarck created the first welfare state in the modern world, with the goal of gaining working class support that might otherwise go to his Socialist opponents.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Most educators and professionals do not consider it appropriate to use tertiary sources such as encyclopedias as a sole source for any information—citing an encyclopedia as an important reference in footnotes or bibliographies may result in censure or a failing grade. Wikipedia articles should be used for background information, as a reference for correct terminology and search terms, and as a starting point for further research.
As with any community-built reference, there is a possibility for error in Wikipedia’s content—please check your facts against multiple sources and read our disclaimers for more information.
But in fact, in what I hope is a friendly exchange, I just use the reference to Wikipedia to underline a factual point I am making about a well known fact. And in fact, this point can be easily checked.
Many (most?) of Mriana’s professors are likely of the generation that had to actually go to the library to do their research when they were students. Way back then, before the internet, they would have been cautioned to not use the printed encyclopedias as their only source and not to cite them. The reason, back then as now, is that academics want students to access the raw data and form their own opinions, not just accept someone’s view.
The problem the internet has given us is that there is so much that is available on-line and so much more that is not available on-line and in our fast food drive-thru world, we want it fast. It is just “too easy” for a student, or someone just looking for a high grade, to not look beyond what comes up on a google search. When I was in school we were taught how to use the library. I have to wonder how long it has been since many who post here and on social media have actually been inside a physical library; I’ll bet it is a small percentage of them, and no, I haven’t done research in a library in 30 years.
“Big tech” and “big data” have changed our world in some good ways and in some not-so-good ways. Fake news, everyone? Best to follow my grandmother’s advice: believe only half of what you see and none of what you hear. I can’t imagine how young people today figure out who they can trust. I do suspect one problem today is that the young have figured out that they can trust almost no one. At least in my day if we did find out that we had been “had” we could be angry with the perpetrator; today we have only ourselves to blame for being so gullible.
When I was in school we were taught how to use the library. - bob
Which was the tool we had at the time. What I was not taught, I don't think anyone was taught in grade school, it's more of a college level understanding of how to do history, is to find the "source" documents. Most people know some general things about the Gettysburg address, but very few have read it. Even if they did, they wouldn't know how to ask or answer questions like, who was the audience, what was Lincoln's intended message, what else did he say that was consistent or inconsistent with that speech etc.
Instead, people see an unqualified person speaking before some small government’s panel, and they think that person is blessed with authority and knowledge. When I say “fact check”, people think I mean go look it up on a fact check website. No, I mean check the actual facts, where did they come from, check the date, the source, the reliability, and how they were twisted to fit the narrative.
During my last years of work, i occupied a relatively high manager position with N-1, N-2, secretariat and support people not included.
Sometime young colleagues came with their files because they could not find the needed information and references. I asked them if they had looked only on computers and on the net and the answer was always yes. I demonstrated them that looking in written documentation could be more effective.
I must admit i was helped by the fact that most of the times, i had a fair idea of what i was looking for, or at least where and how to look for.
@morgankane01 - I must admit i was helped by the fact that most of the times, i had a fair idea of what i was looking for, or at least where and how to look for.
You remind me, during our pre-computer days, those libraries had that wonderful resource librarian, who you could count on to do some search magic.
Sometimes I wonder, if you put an old card catalogue in front of a bunch of high school students, how many could figure out what it was for and how to use it.
Though as much as I love remembering those library days, when knew to make friends with the research librarians, I notice I rarely visit one anymore these days. Oh poop, I probably shouldn’t say that in public, considering my side job. ?