I am currently teaching a group of Master of Arts in Teaching students. The course is Methods of Teaching with Computer Technology. It is a two week course where we explore the latest emerging technologies and discuss ways to integrate them into their future classroom.
Inspired by the Oxford style debate I saw at NECC this year, I decided to do the same in this class. The topic: Wikipedia. They read a few articles provided by me the night before to provide them with a bit of background.
I broke the class into 4 groups of six students. Two groups would argue for the use of Wikipedia and two groups would argue the opposition. This was great as students would certainly be arguing a point of view they dont’ necessarily believe in. Always a good way to learn more about a topic.
The “against Wikipedia” group had their work cut out for them too. A quick poll before the debate using polleverywhere found 82% of the class thought Wikipedia should be used as a research tool in K-12 schools.
If you are interested in the debate, I Ustreamed it. Check it out. The audio isn’t the best, but it is better than nothing.
In the end, the pro Wikipedia group was declared the winner as another poll found 83% for the use of Wikipedia.
This was a great conversation starter as the group discussed the topic in great depth after the debate. Unfortunately, I don’t have a recording of this discussion because the room was too big to capture it at any level of quality. Maybe next time.
By the way, the group that edited the Orono, ME entry to include me, found that someone (not in our class) had the article fixed within 5 minutes. Yay, Wikipedia.
