Beware.

[transatlantic]

I've got a friend who is a teacher and regularly puts false info into Wikipedia so that when students who are not meant to use it find the info she knows that they've copied it. She always puts it right but you can't trust it and who's to say the the people who do police it are all knowledgeable.


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If that's true, what an *****

 

[DiscoStu]

No idea if it's true but she says she does it. I think it's a sign of where teaching is wrong. If need to know how many litres are in a gallon then I use the Internet. The same is true for lots of things. Information is readily available these days and as such our teaching should accept that kids don't need to be able to remember equations etc. Teaching should focus on things that computers can do such as problem solving. A computer can easily calculate the height of a tree but ask it how you get a cat out of the tree with only a meter of rope and it couldn't give you an answer. We need to focus on problem solving skills, negotiating, communication skills etc these will all be valuable in life and it's not easy to get a computer to tell you the best way to get a better deal on from a supplier who wants you to commit to a two year contract.


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[transatlantic]

No idea if it's true but she says she does it. I think it's a sign of where teaching is wrong. If need to know how many litres are in a gallon then I use the Internet. The same is true for lots of things. Information is readily available these days and as such our teaching should accept that kids don't need to be able to remember equations etc. Teaching should focus on things that computers can do such as problem solving. A computer can easily calculate the height of a tree but ask it how you get a cat out of the tree with only a meter of rope and it couldn't give you an answer. We need to focus on problem solving skills, negotiating, communication skills etc these will all be valuable in life and it's not easy to get a computer to tell you the best way to get a better deal on from a supplier who wants you to commit to a two year contract.


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There is also the fact that her students are not the only ones who may be looking at the false info she put up.

 

[mind_the_goat]

If that's true, what an *****

Agreed.
Instead of being taught not to trust what is an extremely good source of peer reviewed information, students should be taught how to use it properly. Citations are included, a;ll the edits and comments are available to check what's been changed. In many cases the main article has a comment pointing out possible issues in the text. It only takes a few minutes to verify the validity of entries.
I believe the volunteers who monitor the site would probably ban someone from editing if they constantly and deliberately posted incorrect entries.

 

[HappyHacker]

I have a couple of web sites hosted by Zen and whenever I have had a problem (usually of my own making) they have always answered the phone promptly and even stayed on the phone while the computer rebooted and I logged on to ensure everything had worked. They just seem to make things easy instead of so many other providers who make everything complicated and waste your time. I can believe their high satisfaction levels.

 

[StevieB]

If that's true, what an *****

Agreed.
Instead of being taught not to trust what is an extremely good source of peer reviewed information, students should be taught how to use it properly.

Wikipedia is not peer reviewed and students should not be encouraged to use it as such! It is fine to use as a 'launching off point' to identify further information, but it is not and never has been a primary reference or source of peer reviewed information. Peer review is something particular in that before publishing, all information is read and assessed by independent experts, examined for content and likelihood, methodology and appropriate conclusions and then published. Although not perfect (see the recent MMR scandal for example) is is currently the gold standard for all academic literature. Wikipedia is far from this - as comments earlier in this thread attest to!

Steve

 

[whiskywill]

I have finally got the reason why my last month's 'phone bill was higher than it should have been according to the itemised bill.

They had "forgotten" to charge me for calls on the previous period, had added it to this bill, but did not think to mention it. Because the additional sum was almost exactly what I pay for my inclusive calls package I thought that I was being charged twice.

Stupid people.

 

[RogerS]

We've just moved our line rental over to Zen from BT. We've already been very very satisfied customers of Zen in the past and given that (a) they don't insist on a yearly contract and (b) are cheaper than BT, it was a no-brainer.

The switchover took place yesterday evening. Blink and you'd have missed it happen. Out of curiosity ran a speed check and we're now getting 8 Mbps up from 6 Mbps. We are supposed to be getting a faster connection but since the muppets at Fastershire (or their contractors) placed Cabinet 1 on our exchange right where it floods (and, guess what...it flooded) they are going to have to rethink. Gut feel tells me that it will never happen as (a) run out of money (b) too difficult (c) deemed not worth it for the few of us on that cabinet.