When I first came upon Wikipedia I was horrified that it even existed. How can an encyclopedia edited by anyone possibly be credible? The first time my daughter used it while researching a school project I nearly choked. She promptly received a lengthy lecture on credible sources and where to find them. She still refers to Wikipedia, probably because it is easy to use and understand, but also because it is the first to appear when you do an Internet search.
Yes, Wikipedia can be useful and interesting, especially for finding obscure or popular information, but it still isn't my first choice when doing research. I easily found an article with very outdated factual information. Although it was easy to fix, I didn't feel very comfortable doing so. However, if I didn't edit it, someone could have used the incorrect information for a project. Sadly, not everyone takes their researching as seriously as I do.
Wikipedia is here to stay, but that won't stop me from encouraging my children to always find a better source.
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