Wikipedia

I love Wikipedia! If I am ever unsure of something for university assignments or anything in general, I find that Wikipedia usually provides a succint, well structured, easy to understand explanation of what it is I am looking for. Perhaps this is because it is written and edited by everyday people, not by academics who can get carried away with using too many big words! As such, I believe that students would find the same benefits when they are having trouble understanding a concept or researching a certain topic.

I am always wary of the fact that Wikipedia is a Wiki and as such, the information contributed may not be 100% correct. I would definitely make sure my students were aware of this.

Wikipedia may be useful for student-centred learning as the sheer volume of content means they could choose to learn about pretty much anything from Wikipedia. Also, as I mentioned earlier, the content is usually structured in an easy-to-understand and easy-to-follow format. An example for use in the classroom may be, students could be put into groups, pick an aspect of the content relative to the topic and KLA they were currently learning about and create a presentation to teach it to the class. This relates back to the Learning by teaching, constructivism method; "If students have to present and train new contents with their classmates, a non-linear process of collective knowledge-construction will be set up"(Wikipedia, 2010).



References:

Wikipedia. (2010). Constructivism. Retrieved on April 11, 2010 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructivism_(learning_theory)