After careful thought on the subject of whether students should have access to wikipedia in K-12 education I believe this media source should continue to be limited in our school setting. As educators we are responsible for teaching the correct content of our course to our students, so why then would we allow students to view and cite sources in their own research that has questionable accuracy? If the content within a wikipedia page is truly able to be altered how can we be certain the information was ever correct. We as adults may be able to question its accuracy as we read through but a student conducting research may have a limited knowledge base in which to draw. Do we really want our students to walk around with inaccurate information on a subject. But on the other hand, shouldn't we caution our students about most information on the web, not only wikipedia? We know that we must sift through the great expanse of information because often times it may be inaccurate in other cites as well. Students conducting research should stick to online encyclopedias as a direct source. Although, I am not saying that they should eliminate the use of cites like wikipedia, but I feel they should use these with caution. Students could use this cite as a reference to back up the information found in a reliable source.
Using reliable sources allows the student to recognize the faults in wikipedia, therefore leading to intlelligent discussions. In summary I would not allow my students to conduct research and use wikipedia as their reliable source. I would encourage them to use reliable sources first and then use it as a springboard for future discussions on the researched topic.
