Spotlight on Digital Media And Learning

1.17.11 | Wikipedia turned 10 years old on Jan. 15. In practical as well as well as in subtler, symbolic terms, its impact on education has been profound.

On the practical level, answers to most factual questions are just a click away—at school, at home or on the road. What was once the domain of authoritative textbooks and teachers, is now open to everyone, anywhere. On the flipside, students have a much tougher time claiming ignorance.

And while the reliability of Wikipedia has been met with skepticism over the years, most teachers now see it as a great place for students at least to start the research process. And instead of Wikipedia being a threat to their role as purveyors of knowledge, it is now more often an indispensable companion.

Symbolically, Wikipedia’s pioneering approach to collaborative knowledge has empowered students and others to construct and share their own understanding of the world.

While few of the anniversary-inspired reflections on Wikipedia directly discuss its impact on education, the connections are clear. The Atlantic Monthly sought comments from “all-star thinkers,” such as New York University professor and author Clay Shirky, who still marvels at how Wikipedia “changes our view of the world, around issues like collaboration, generosity, or authority”:

A common complaint about Wikipedia during its first decade is that it is “not authoritative,” as if authority was a thing which Encyclopedia Britannica had and Wikipedia doesn’t. This view, though, hides the awful truth—authority is a social characteristic, not a brute fact. Authoritativeness adheres to persons or institutions who, we jointly agree, have enough of a process for getting things right that we trust them.

Although it can be amusing to look the vandalized entries over the years (compiled by Katla McGlynn at The Huffington Post), anyone who observes how much students and other users rely upon Wikipedia’s breadth and accessible style, and the responsibility editors shoulder to get it right, can see Shirky’s point.

According to a Pew Research Center survey, education level is the strongest predictor of Wikipedia use: 69 percent of internet users with at least a college degree use the site. And 59 percent of those with broadband access at home use the site compared with 26 percent of those who connect through dial-up. Not surprisingly, it is most popular with younger internet users: 62 percent of those under 30 use Wikipedia, compared with 33 percent of internet users age 65 and older.

Wikipedia’s contributors overwhelmingly have been male—more than 80 percent, in fact, and the average age is somewhere in the late 20s. In an interview with their hometown newspaper, San Francisco Chronicle, Co-Founder Jimmy Wales and Executive Director Sue Gardner express their desire to broaden the “diversity of voices” on the site:

In 2011 and beyond, they want to reach out to more women, older people, experts in the arts and humanities, and less-represented geographic areas like South America, South Asia and the Arab world.

Wikimedia plans to open a small office in India in the coming months and may eventually do the same in Brazil and the Middle East. In addition, it has been launching partnerships on U.S. college campuses to fill in other gaps, including asking humanities professors to assign students to write fully sourced articles for the site.

“They’re doing it anyway; they like doing it and they really find it appealing to have a huge audience for their work,” Gardner said.

Meanwhile, more than half the volunteers to be so-called campus ambassadors for Wikipedia have been women.

These efforts point to yet another digital divide—between those who consume information and those who contribute to its creation. And that divide becomes problematic when gender (as well as class, race, education, etc.) becomes a determining factor.

To convert more readers into editors and creators, early promotion of digital literacy, such the integration of wikis into the classroom, is an important tool. If you’re an educator or student who uses wikis in school, share your experience or assignment in the comments.

Plus: For a look at Wikipedia’s reach, check out these statistics. And John C. Abell of Wired has put together a list of “impressive, weird and amazing facts.”