Schools Ban Wikipedia--a Discussion on This Move

Pennsylvania's school have banned Wikipedia-the world famous source of reference for people around the globe-labeling it an invalid source of information not to be allowed as reference by students for schoolwork. This has almost shocked the online community, which prominently uses Wikipedia for referencing work.

While this issue has generated a two-way response from the community, from internet users, and from bloggers, there are many things to ponder upon while giving your own judgement for vindicating the decision or deriding it as a missed opportunity.

We would try to look on different aspects of this development and then would come to a conclusion. Let first start from the start:

Meaning of Wikipedia:

As quoted by the site of Wikipedia itself:

'A wiki is a type of computer software that allows users to easily create, edit and link web pages. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites, power community websites, and are increasingly being installed by businesses to provide affordable and effective Intranets or for use in Knowledge Management. Ward Cunningham, developer of the first wiki, WikiWikiWeb, originally described it as "the simplest online database that could possibly work". One of the best-known wikis is Wikipedia.'

So, from this, we get the clear definition of the term "wiki". Of course, Wikipedia was designed to emulate the encyclopedia, which is hard-copy and is available in libraries for reference work. However, there is a great difference between the two: the authenticity, the originality, and the proved-accuracy are lacking in Wikipedia. It so happens that there is very good knowledge and information provided by pages of Wikipedia, which is often supplemented by images, sounds, and other links; however, one thing that limits its authenticity or accuracy is the statement that it often carries with it-this information needs more citation. It shows that while the Wikipedia pages are providing information, they are not 100% sure about the authenticity of the content that they have published. This is where the actual problem starts. Reference work is a very important part of any educational system. Scientific researches, medical treatments, legal cases, and almost all the walks of life resort to reference work, when they are stuck in some problem. What is the value of a citation system that itself needs some citations? If there is a system that is not sure enough about itself, how can they use it to be authentic?

Wikipedia lacks a big issue, which is perhaps related to monetary things. Wikipedia is a free service-they don't charge you anything for providing the information or knowledge. While anybody who builds a wiki has to pay money to the developers, contributors, and also the maintenance department. Often this lands them to the situation where they have to ask the individuals or the users themselves to contribute. This contribution is often limited to personal opinions, conceptions, and is not verified by any authority. This is where the systems sometimes tend to lack proved-accuracy and originality. The hard-copy material that we have in form of encyclopedias, they have proper citation system, proved-accuracy, and originality, because it is not a matter of fancied-wish to publish the books that are used worldwide. They undergo thorough testing, quality checks, and inspection by the team of authorized people-the companies or publishers who develop the encyclopaedias work through this system so that no one can question their product. They usually do not publish the content, which they do not deem to be 100% correct, authentic, and proved. This is where they excel for the use of schools and colleges. This leads us to our second point of discussion.

Child psychology and schools

Schools are different from colleges and universities where the system of education is more dependent on research, exploring, finding the new ideas, methods by debating the old ones. However, in schools, the fundamental truths, methods, basis of any educational idea, language development, and knowledge about the world is provided. If the minds of children are stuffed with confusing statements, they will not be able to grasp the truth and a hatred outlook towards the education system would be developed. Coherence and proper information are the diet ingredients of the children at school. Education in schools is based on gradual upgrading and not on debatable issues that vary from region to region, country to country, and language to language. Child psychology plays a very important role in this issue-if it is not properly addressed, the children can feel allergic to educational system. When anybody starts learning something, he/she needs some interest that can bind the person to the system. If, just at the start, he/she is stuffed with contradictory remarks, debateable definitions prevalent in the system, and varied concepts of underlying principles, he/she would not stay in the system for long.

Let's take an example to understand this thing better: suppose a child starts learning any musical system. I mean there are wide varieties of music systems. Suppose the teachers starts telling him about all the musical systems, all the musical instruments-their complexities, the usage around the world, their popularity, all the varieties of singing, and other issues involved in the musical world, it would be very difficult for the child to comprehend it and decide as to what it would like to learn. The best way would be to start teaching him about the things that the teacher itself knows very clearly and thoroughly. Once the child is groomed in the basic concepts of music system, once it gets some knowledge and power of decision-making, it can switch to any instrument, any musical system, or any style of singing. Similarly, at school, children need to be groomed in a protected environment, which is professed by the teachers, resources of any teaching material. Once they are proficient in basic education, they can decide on to take some debatable issues or make their own progress in the field by doing research or similar tasks when they move into college or universities. The age factor of a college/university students allows them to understand the deeper intricacies of debatable issues.

Conclusion

Though I personally do not recommend using Wikipedia for any reference use (instead printed and authentic encyclopaedias would be better for this thing), I am not against it use, for, I myself do the same. However, at the same time, I do understand that school-children should not be advised to refer Wikipedia for their studies. So, I would deem that the schools of Pennsylvania have done a right thing by not allowing Wikipedia to students for their reference work.