Wikipedia - worth it?

I'm afraid I don't regard Wikipedia with the same suspicion (or loathing) often attributed to educators.  As an information professional, it is my job to teach people how to locate, evaluate and use information resources.  Wikipedia articles require more careful review than an article in a peer-reviewed, established journal, but its breadth of content and ease of use can make it an excellent starting point for research.

Part of Wikipedia's bad rap is that anyone at all can add and edit content.  This lack of authority compromises the overall quality, but like any collaborative project, the end result can often be superior to whatever any one individual might have created on his or her own. That said,Wikipedia content is constantly changing, and we may not always capture content at its most accurate point.  We can appreciate Wikipedia for conveniently packaging information related to our topics, but should really use it to locate additional resources that substantiate what we learn from Wikipedia.

Unfortunately, I was disappointed when I edited a Wikipedia article about reusable bags with bogus information.  Perhaps the topic wasn't high profile enough to warrant correction, but my misinformation remains uncorrected.  So while group participation typically helps to police the quality of Wikipedia's content, anyone researching reusable bags today should be sure to double-check the accuracy!

Of course the quality of my group's contributed content on situated learning is far less questionable.  In our Wikipedia entry, we cited reputable sources and used our experience with educating adult learners to thoughtfully synthesize information related to the topic. As the group member who handled posting our collaborative article and its references, however, I believe that serious contributors go through quite a bit of trouble to add content.  The wiki mark-up language is not for the casual user, so I have to believe that anyone who would go to the trouble of writing a clear, well-organized article and then footnoting credible resources, as well as adding links to related resources and/or uploading images, charts, etc. is interested in making Wikipedia as useful as possible for all.