I read the Wiki articles listed under Thing #14, and was particularly intrigued by the comments on this post. Amazing how many commenters didn't know that anyone can edit a wiki. I was also surprised at how many commenters, on learning this, were ready to immediately dismiss wikis as an information source.
Like many teachers and librarians, I have my share of tongue-clucking kids-[and teachers]-today-with-their-ignorant-reliance-on-Wikipedia anecdotes. But I have to admit to using Wikipedia A LOT myself, though when I'm doing research for someone else I always try to back it up with a second source--often from a website cited in the relevant Wikipedia article. I think the breadth and collaborative aspect of Wikipedia is one of the wonders of the post-Internet world.
And Wikipedia's unreliability serves as an excellent reminder that all sources--even the blandest of print encyclopedias--have the potential to be unreliable and biased, and that it's always useful to ask the question "Who wrote this, and why?"
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