I've been an advocate for Wikipedia for a long time, yet more information saying it is a valid source (as with all sources we need to teach students to find corroborating sources before using the source).
Not without error, but does go to show that even more trusted sites have errors, so don't hold Wikipedia to a different standard!
Finally, what makes Wikipedia a better source is a shear volume of information on the site as compared to other 'encyclopedias'.
I've been an advocate for Wikipedia for a long time, yet more information saying it is a valid source (as with all sources we need to teach students to find corroborating sources before using the source).
Not without error, but does go to show that even more trusted sites have errors, so don't hold Wikipedia to a different standard!
Finally, what makes Wikipedia a better source is a shear volume of information on the site as compared to other 'encyclopedias'.
I know Wikipedia is a galvinizing tool to many teachers, but this is a great example of what Wikipedia can do that few other sites are capable of doing. What a great place to start the conversation with the expectation that students back up any information with outside sources!!!
A Firefox extension/add-on that shows you a relevant Wikipedia article along with your search results. Clicking links in the article will trigger new Google searches, making it a very useful research tool..
Another timeline tool that allows for addition of text events along a timeline. It's still in beta, but relatively easy to use. Not a lot of bells and whistles. Can import from Flickr, Wikipedia, but I haven't found that you can embed video, yet.