reading #4

The answer to the question, “can wikipedia ever make the grade?” is not a question with a simple answer. The online encyclopedia that can be used by anyone with internet access and can also be updated and have information added by anyone with internet access has had a reputation for supplying many false statements and false information. However, recent studies are showing that the information on wikipedia is actually fairly accurate and is almost as accurate as the encyclopedia Britannica. A study performed by the journal Nature, showed that the average amount of errors in an encyclopedia Britannica article was three while the wikipedia only averaged four. Alexander M.C. Halavais, an assistant professor of communications at Quinnipiac College tried to design his own experiment to see how well wikipedia edited information added by adding articles with completely false information and bogus stats. The errors he added in his articles were found within hours and deleted from the site, showing that wikipedia is trying hard to become a credible source of information that can be used in research and not seen as an error filled source of information.
If professors and scholars would help by adding their research or helping share their knowledge on wikipedia the site would become a much more credible source and could rid itself of its bad reputation. Of the 40,000 contributing members only about 1,000 list themselves as graduate students and hardly any list themselves as professors. If more scholars add information then the information will be more accurate and trustworthy which will help wikipedia make the grade it desires to obtain.

internet grooming

South Wales Police in the Vale of Glamorgan are reminding parents to be aware of the dangers their children may face when using the popular internet chat-room sites such as Facebook and Bebo. Police say millions of children divulge personal information over internet chat-room sites and openly talk to anyone oblivious of the dangers that could be around them. However, parents are oblivious to what their children are doing on the internet and what information they are putting out there for the world to read. With the access to the internet becoming increasingly easier through Schools, Libraries and Internet Cafes as well as at home combined with an increase in the number of online chat-rooms, internet crime has seen a marked increase. Children are leaving themselves open to the dangers of online grooming. Popular sites such as Facebook and Myspace are very dangerous because now anyone can create an account and it is very easy to access other’s information. The internet is a great tool and is very helpful in many areas but it is also a dangerous and scary thing as far as privacy is concerned. The Virtual Global Taskforce is a website made up of police from around the world dedicated to fighting child abuse online. Its main goal is to build an effective, international partnership of law enforcement agencies which helps to protect children from online child abuse. These type of task forces are a innovative way to interact and see what children are being exposed to. There are profiles created to bate abusers and try to lure them into giving away their location and their motives. More parents need to be aware of what their childr4n are doing online and be protective of the information that they are putting out there for the world to read.

Infodiet

The comparison of Google to a fast food restaurant the way college students tend to lean toward the “quick” and “easy” way of learning is a great comparison because I can closely relate with the idea. When trying to write multiple papers or do research for projects it is sometimes inconvenient to spend loads of time doing the extensive research and working with the library search engines much like when you are in a hurry you swing by McDonalds instead of cooking a healthy meal at home. Also, I agree that though it is easy, the information found on Google or other non-educational search engines is often not accurate and can make papers not as strong and less accurate.
If libraries and librarians could somehow make the academic search engines easier to navigate I believe that students would be more likely to lean towards the academic engines than the Google’s and other popular search engines. We tend to go for the easy and quick route because often our time to write multiple papers is limited and taking extra time to do “academic” search when we can use other engines we chose the easy way out.
Another good point brought up in this article is that more often than not the professors who are giving out assignments and requiring research to be done do not know how to use the search engines that they are expecting their student to use. If students and professors alike will both lean toward the academic search engines and have a better understanding of how they are used, the learning process will be easier and the quality of work will also increase.